Hello, this is Cynthia from THINK-TEAM.
I hope you are doing well wherever you are.
These days, I am curious about the global response towards the high-end climate change scenario (i.e., maintaining global temperature increase 1.5degC). Also, thanks to my colleague, Indri's blog about Indonesian Net Zero and Electricity Plan in 2021-2030. So, I checked how trendy this topic is being discussed.
So, I tried a hashtag analysis using the hashtag #netzerocarbon.
Interestingly, the topic increases noticeably from the last week as the figure shown below. Then, I recalled what Tak mentioned in one of our discussions that with the attention towards COP26, more and more people will talk about the topic. Indeed, When I checked the top influencer, it is UNFCCC as one of the host organisations for COP26.
Related hashtags are shown below. It seems energy efficiency term is often juxtaposed with #netzerocarbon
This then made me curious how the future net-zero carbon pathways look like in the future. This curiosity brought me to visit the IEA website to see the net-zero carbon from global perspective, particularly the energy sector. IEA recently published a report in defining future net-zero carbon pathways. The report emphasises that if we want to achieve net-zero carbon by 2050 cooperation and innovation acceleration are crucial. The least scenario in which cooperation is very limited, the net-zero carbon is projected to be achieved by 2090 (which you should consider with the worsening climate change impacts).
Source: https://iea.blob.core.windows.net/assets/beceb956-0dcf-4d73-89fe-1310e3046d68/NetZeroby2050-ARoadmapfortheGlobalEnergySector_CORR.pdf page 26
FYI, the energy sector is deemed to have the highest responsibility to reduce its GHG emission, as shown in figure below. Interestingly, BECCS (bioenergy with carbon capture and storage) will be the key to negative GHG emissions in the future.
Source: https://iea.blob.core.windows.net/assets/beceb956-0dcf-4d73-89fe-1310e3046d68/NetZeroby2050-ARoadmapfortheGlobalEnergySector_CORR.pdf page 55
Furthermore, this report also clarifies that even net-zero scenario is achieved by 2050, coal and oil will still exist for non-energy purposes (e.g., lubricants, asphalt). However, this should happen when BECCS and DACCS (direct air capture with carbon capture and storage) technology is already in place.
Hopefully, this COP26 will bring fresh air and a great push for the global community to take climate change issues seriously as indicated by one of Tak's blog here [su-re venture] Climate Change as a generation war
Thank you for reading! I am just curious from your perspectives, what kind of clean energy should be optimised to shape the net-zero pathways?