Tech Breakdown: Climate Change and Greenhouse Gas Emissions

By Arjun Bhatia

As we look toward a future of renewable and clean energy sources, it is also important to look at the reasons we are on this path, especially since that can help measure our current progress with cutting our emissions. This article will take a look at  the study of climate change, its causes, and how we are combating them.

Who discovered climate change?

While the idea of humans being able to change Earth’s climate dates back to ancient Greece, the modern idea of climate change can be traced back to the 1896 work of Swedish chemist, Svante Arrhenius [1]. He and his colleague, Thomas Chamberlain, while studying whether carbon dioxide concentration could explain the Ice Ages, predicted that the increased carbon output due to industrial activities could result in a rise in global temperatures. For the next century, various scientists would continue to perform their own research on the topic and the idea of climate change would continue to gain more public and political attention. In 1988, the United Nations formed the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) [2]. In 2001, one of the most accepted bases for climate change was presented to this panel. This paper has served as a framework for both future research and policymaking, being a major consensus for scientists around the globe on this topic [3].

Why does climate change happen?

The 2001 IPCC paper explains the cause of climate change, with a particular focus on carbon dioxide emissions. It explains how the planet’s climate is dependent on a climate system, consisting of five components. The most unstable of these components is the atmosphere. Within the atmosphere, there are certain amounts of gases which can interact with incoming solar radiation, including carbon dioxide (CO2), methane, nitrous oxide, ozone, and water vapour. For this tech breakdown, we will be focusing on CO2, as it is a major by-product of non-renewable energy sources. The excess CO2 leads to something called the enhanced greenhouse effect. Essentially, CO2 easily allows short-wavelength light from the sun to reach Earth’s surface. The surface reflects this energy back as long-wavelength light, which the carbon dioxide reflects back to Earth. The carbon emissions act as a one-way gate, letting energy enter but preventing it from leaving [3].

Normally, this process is called the Greenhouse Effect, and allows the planet to maintain a stable temperature. However, due to increased carbon emissions over the last two centuries, the amount of trapped energy has kept increasing, enhancing the Greenhouse Effect. This excess stored heat has had, and will continue to have, consequences on the climate system of the entire planet [3].

Natural and enhanced greenhouse effects. Original image can be found here.

Why are emission-free power sources so important?

It has already been established that a clear correlation exists between carbon-burning and the global temperature. Now it should be noted that a large portion of the carbon-burning is done for the purpose of generating electricity. Around a quarter of total global emissions come from electricity and heating, emissions which could be reduced if the techniques used to produce that power were emission-free [4].  

While the remaining three quarters of emissions come from factors such as transportation, industrial processes, building construction, forestry, mining, and so on, it is possible that by advancing renewables and clean energy sources, these sectors will also be able to develop techniques to lower emissions. One such example is electric vehicles. A study conducted on the European power sector predicted that if 80% of all cars were to go electric, the additional grid load would be 10%-15% above the current level. By developing carbon-free sources of energy, this additional load can be supplied by clean power [5].

What does the future look like?

In terms of the future of renewables and other carbon-free sources of energy, the sector has been growing over time. In the 21st century, more nations are seeing the benefits of switching their grids over to clean electricity. Global leaders like China and the United States, as well as rapidly-developing countries around the globe, have taken an interest in developing their clean energy sources [6]. While there is a real environmental incentive, these technologies are getting more cost-effective. Over the last decade, there have been significant drops in the cost of clean energy sources; for example, there has been a 47%-82% cost reduction for solar energy and 29%-39% for wind energy [7]. Additionally, hydroelectricity remains one of the most efficient and cost-effective power-generation systems on the planet, making it an attractive option for rapidly-developing nations in Asia, South America, and Central America [8][9]. To learn more about hydroelectricity, check out our article here. 

Through improving technology and more widespread education, carbon emissions have slowed down. While this will combat the growing effects of climate change, the world is still far from the goals it set at the Paris Climate Agreements, and there is much work to be done to meet them [10].

Want to learn more about climate change? Check out how the impacts of climate change have changed over the years here.

 References

[1]   “The Discovery of Global Warming [Excerpt] - Scientific American.” https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/discovery-of-global-warming/ (accessed Mar. 28, 2021).

[2]   “History of the greenhouse effect and global warming.” https://www.lenntech.com/greenhouse-effect/global-warming-history.htm (accessed Mar. 28, 2021).

[3]   J. T. Houghton et al., “Climate Change 2001: The Scientific Basis Contribution of Working Group I to the Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Published for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change,” 2001. Accessed: Mar. 28, 2021. [Online]. Available: http://www.cambridge.org.

[4]   O. Edenhofer et al., Climate Change 2014 Mitigation of Climate Change Working Group III Contribution to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Edited by. 2014.

[5]   “Decarbonisation pathways Decarbonisation pathways Part 1-European economy EU electrification and decarbonisation scenario modelling Introduction and methodology,” 2018.

[6]   “Renewables 2020 – Analysis - IEA.” https://www.iea.org/reports/renewables-2020 (accessed Mar. 28, 2021).

[7]   “How Falling Costs Make Renewables a Cost-effective Investment,” International Renewable Energy Agency. Accessed: Mar. 28, 2021. [Online]. Available: https://www.irena.org/newsroom/articles/2020/Jun/How-Falling-Costs-Make-Renewables-a-Cost-effective-Investment

[8]   S. Tang, J. Chen, P. Sun, Y. Li, P. Yu, and E. Chen, “Current and future hydropower development in Southeast Asia countries (Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Myanmar),” Energy Policy, vol. 129, pp. 239–249, Jun. 2019, doi: 10.1016/j.enpol.2019.02.036.

[9]   “Hydro Powers Latin America - Renewable Energy World.” https://www.renewableenergyworld.com/2012/06/21/hydro-powers-latin-america/#gref (accessed Nov. 25, 2020).

[10] “UN report reveals how hard it will be to meet climate change targets | New Scientist.” https://www.newscientist.com/article/2224539-un-report-reveals-how-hard-it-will-be-to-meet-climate-change-targets/ (accessed Mar. 28, 2021).