5 Reasons to be Optimistic about the Energy Future
Grim is the normal mood in most coverage of energy and the environment, and there are plenty of reasons for concern. But let us now load the optimism cannon and take note of some signs that we are moving slowly though inexorably to a world of safer and cleaner energy, where humans can prosper without desolating the natural world. Here are some hopeful clues that your grandkids’ kids might not after all inherit a wasteland.
Carbon dioxide emissions in the U.S. likely fell slightly in 2015 thanks to a wave of coal fired power plant closures, plus the increased use of natural gas and renewable energy in electricity generation. A decline in emissions is normal during a recession, but this happened last year even as the economy grew and added hundreds of thousands of jobs. The U.S. is becoming both more energy efficient and less reliant on energy consumption to drive prosperity.
Investment in advanced energy technologies is accelerating and globalizing. President Obama’s 2017 budget request would double basic energy research to over $12 billion over the next five years. Twenty other countries have also pledged to double their investments in clean tech as part of an initiative called Mission Innovation. At the same time a group of wealthy private investors, led by Bill Gates, is promising to put serious capital behind risky energy start-ups. Gates often talks about the need for an energy “miracle” to virtually eliminate carbon dioxide emissions from the energy system by mid-century. A mixture of public R&D and private investment is the only way we’ll get there.
China’s CO2 emissions may have peaked, about a decade earlier than previously expected. That’s according to new study in the journal Climate Policy, reported in the Financial Times. China is the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases, and arresting the growth of its emissions would be a big deal.
A majority of Americans believe that Climate Change is real and support policies to reduce carbon dioxide pollution, according to Yale University. This is not to say that American voters are in complete alignment with the consensus view of scientists. They’re not. But the whole “climate change is a hoax” fever may have finally abated, at least to the point where future outbreaks will be politically impotent.
In America the renewable energy industries are booming. Wind and solar now account for the majority of new electricity generating capacity in the United States, and in 2016 solar might account for more new capacity than any other energy source. But curb your applause. Wind and solar still provide less than 3% of total energy needs in America. So what we’re witnessing is an oh-so gradual transition, not a revolution. And that transition is really only happening only in electricity markets. For now.
To be sure, there are Debbie Downer perspectives on each of these. But stay charged: optimism is a tenable position.
Originally published at west.energy on March 9, 2016.
