Climate Change Can Be Reversed – DOE study
Getting to Net Zero – and Even Net Negative – is Surprisingly Feasible, and Affordable; New analysis provides detailed blueprint for the U.S. to become carbon neutral by 2050
Julie Chen, January 27, 2021 (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)
“Reaching zero net emissions of carbon dioxide from energy and industry by 2050 can be accomplished by rebuilding U.S. energy infrastructure to run primarily on renewable energy, at a net cost of about $1 per person per day, according to new research…[The multiple feasible technology pathways] differ widely in remaining fossil fuel use, land use, consumer adoption, nuclear energy, and bio-based fuels use…[Net costs range] from 0.2% to 1.2% of GDP, with higher costs resulting from certain tradeoffs, such as limiting the amount of land given to solar and wind farms. In the lowest-cost pathways, about 90% of electricity generation comes from wind and solar…[The cost figures would be lower] if they included the economic and climate benefits of decarbonizing our energy systems…
…[The] actions required in the next 10 years are similar regardless of long-term differences between pathways. In the near term, we need to increase generation and transmission of renewable energy, make sure all new infrastructure, such as cars and buildings, are low carbon, and maintain current natural gas capacity for now for reliability…[This is] the first published work to give a detailed roadmap of how the U.S. energy and industrial system can become a source of negative CO2 emissions by mid-century, meaning more carbon dioxide is taken out of the atmosphere than added…When combined with increasing CO2 uptake by the land, mainly by changing agricultural and forest management practices, the researchers calculated that the net negative emissions scenario would put the U.S. on track with a global trajectory to reduce atmospheric CO2 concentrations to [pre-industrial] 350 parts per million (ppm) at some distance in the future…” click here for more
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