Some good climate change news, for a change

An article in Science News Explores discusses a model that researchers built and tested that projects energy costs in the future. Based on the data the model spewed out, our economy and society can save trillions of dollars if we just keep installing solar and wind power at the same rate we have been for the last 20 years. SNE writes:

.... economists have said that a switch to cleaner power — such as wind or solar — would be very costly. Such a switch is referred to as “decarbonization.”

But making that switch globally should actually save money, researchers now report. Decarbonizing our energy use could save trillions of dollars over the next 20 years or so. That’s the conclusion of a September 13 paper in Joule.

This might sound surprising. “People think it will cost a lot of money to throw away our whole energy system and replace it,” he says. “But we’re always doing this.” For example, gas stations are replaced about every 25 years. If between now and 2050 we replace each gas station with an electric-vehicle charging station, we’ll reach the climate goal set by many governments.   

Predictions, of course, offer no guarantees. Farmer’s team based its predictions on the assumption that people will continue to install solar, wind and battery storage at the same pace they’ve been doing for the past 20 years. If that occurs, we’ll have a fast transition to clean power. And over that time, they estimate it should save between $5 trillion and $15 trillion dollars.

We are transitioning away from carbon energy faster than I imagined. That's very good news. Whether the transition will be fast enough to prevent a catastrophe or two is still unknowable.

My guess is that oil, gas and coal companies have been aware of this carbon energy phase-out timeline based on their own internal research. To keep profits up, they need to continue to oppose and slow the ongoing decarbonization process now underway. Trillions of dollars are at stake. That easily trumps concerns about risks and costs associated with, e.g., continuing to exacerbate climate change by carbon energy use and species extinctions. 

By Germaine