Transitioning from Fossil Fuels
The transition to a green economy under President Biden offers the hope of a platform that will consider ecojustice in the phasing out of fossil fuels. Yet experts in the field of greening economies discuss the hardships implicit during the time of transition. This is particularly true as we come to understand the urgency with which we must act, in light of the recent draft IPCC report and the cataclysmic climate-change-driven events which have characterized this summer across the world. In the past few months, reports and articles issued as recently as March seem obsolete.
Until recently, the transition period has been sussed out to align with the Paris Agreement, which calls for global temperatures to rise no more than 2 degrees. Now we are confronted with a reality that even the more ambitious goal of 1.5 degrees may be too little too late.
Transitioning away from fossil fuels, if addressed with targeted warp speed, needs to first address both the industrial and transportation sectors of the economy.
Aligned with Biden's position, the Union of Concerned Scientists issued a report recently asserting that a successful clean-energy transformation must take into account environmental injustices as well as racial and socioeconomic inequities.
Fossil fuel-dependent workers and communities that are hurt by the transition away from these fuels must also be treated fairly and receive robust support.
We can—and must—seize the opportunity to enact transformative policies and make investments that not only deliver science-based carbon emissions reductions but also ensure that the benefits are accessible and shared equitably among all communities.
The rapid response needed to address the transition, however, may cause more hardship in these populations, even in scenarios that do not radically shift but continue adhering to the Paris agreement goals.
New research from Resources for the Future points out that hundreds of areas like central Utah are facing painful hardships because of the clean-energy transformation that will be necessary if the United States hopes to reach the Paris agreement’s goals to slow climate change. Lost jobs and wages, a shrinking population and an erosion of the tax base that supports roads, schools and community services—they’re all costs of the economic shift that will be paid by those whose hard work fueled American prosperity for so long.
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Meeting the Paris agreement’s target of keeping global temperature rise “well below 2 degrees C” by the end of the century means Americans must burn 90 percent less coal over the next two decades and half as much oil and natural gas, Raimi said.
And less fossil fuel use will also affect employment, public finances and economic development region-by-region, according to Raimi. In 50 of the nation’s 3,006 counties, 25 percent or more of all wages are tied to fossil fuel energy, he notes. In 16 counties, 25 percent or more of their total jobs are related to fossil energy.
Inside Climate News
Foreign Affairs last week reported in an article A Safety Net for the Green Economy that “even though decarbonization is essential to humanity’s survival, the transition will have profound economic effects.”
”Moving from fossil fuels to renewable energy will inevitably displace long-established industries, cost millions of workers their jobs, and disrupt communities that rely on the coal, oil, and natural gas industries.”
In an exceptionally detailed Brookings June 2020 article Why are Fossil Fuels So Hard to Quit, Samantha Gross writes:
The world needs technology and strong policy to move in a new direction. Throughout history, humanity’s energy use has moved toward more concentrated, convenient, and flexible forms of energy. Understanding the advantages of today’s energy sources and the history of past transitions can help us understand how to move toward low-carbon energy sources. With greater understanding of the climate challenge, we are making huge strides in developing the technology we need to move toward a low-carbon future. Still, understanding how we got here and why the modern world was built on fossil fuels is crucial to understanding where we go from here.
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Transforming solar energy flow into electricity is a clear place to start in creating a decarbonized energy system. A simple formula is to decarbonize the electricity sector and electrify all the energy uses we can. Many important processes can be electrified — especially stationary uses, like in buildings and many industrial processes. To deal with climate change, this formula is the low-hanging fruit.
“Pragmatically, the scale of the decarbonization problem is so enormous that the actions of individuals won’t solve it,” writes Adam Sobel in the article Making the transition to a green economy: What is our responsibility as citizens? “We need to remake the systems that produce and use energy at a scale and to an extent that only governments and large corporations have the power to do (as can be heard in the podcast “Give Up Your Climate Guilt”).
Yet, Sobel writes, individual actions do matter because they can lead to cultural shifts.
“Cultural change can lead to political change. Gay marriage seemed politically impossible until it didn’t. The more of us that make what lower-carbon choices we can, and talk about how we are doing it—without shaming others or expecting sacrifices that would cause hardship—the closer the equivalent moment for real climate action will come.”
Radical climate disruption has arrived. Even as the world’s nations prepare for the 26th U.N. climate meeting, this time in Glasgow, the planet is throwing the inadequacy of the last 25 into sharp relief. Meanwhile, scientists prepare the latest global climate assessment to be released August 9. It’s expected to be bad.
Still, whatever fine words political leaders are saying about the “existential crisis” of climate, their actions don’t match the emerging, critical reality. We have reached a climate zero hour when action at an unprecedented scale is required. Climate news comes in a deluge