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Climate exchange Opinion: The needed innovations are financial , not technological

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As the country and the world wait with bated breath to see how Biden’s precedent-setting infrastructure package will move forward, there were a few other developments this week in the world of fighting climate change that are worth calling attention to, which should give us some optimism — and also a very clear sense of direction.

The main thread between these is this: The innovation we need to solve the climate crisis is not so much technological but rather innovations in the world of finance.

First, the International Energy Agency, a body of international energy experts that typically err on the conservative side as far as predicting our energy future go, had somewhat of an about face this week. In their Net Zero roadmap they released last Tuesday, they said in no ambiguous terms that in order to reach net zero by 2050 and give ourselves at least a shot at limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, there would be “no need for investment in new fossil fuel supply.” That’s a pretty big statement coming from the IEA. ...

OK, so we have to divest from fossil fuels. The climate movement has been screaming that for years of course, but at least the message is starting to get through.

But that begs the question: What will we use to power society in its place? 

Climate envoy John Kerry made a statement last week that said that “I am told by scientists that 50 percent of the reductions we have to make to get to net zero are going to come from technologies that we don’t yet have.” Thankfully that’s not true, and Mark Jacobson a professor of Civil Engineering at Stanford recently explained how the former Secretary of State was off the mark.

Actually, it’s very clear what we will use in the place of fossil fuels. We’ll electrify everything and power it all with clean energy, mostly solar. The EIA reports “In our pathway to net zero, almost 90% of global electricity generation in 2050 comes from renewable sources, with solar PV and wind together accounting for nearly 70%.”  ...

The bottom line is: We have all the technology we need to solve the climate crisis. And if we implement them fast enough, it’ll save us tons of money on our energy bills, create millions of jobs, prevent millions of premature deaths each year from air pollution, and save our planet from impending doom. But it’s going to take a lot of money flowing in new directions very quickly. And that means we need to get very creative very quickly about how to make that happen in the United States and around the world.

 

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