Bill Gates believes we need a new industrial revolution to avoid a climate disaster.
"Half the technology needed to get to zero emissions either doesn't exist yet or is too expensive for much of the world to afford,” he writes.
Gates has pledged his organization Breakthrough Energy will fund $1.5 billion in climate change projects if Congress passes the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill. The bill earmarks $25 billion to the Department of Energy for climate change remediation. The funding will focus on Direct Air Capture, a zero emission fuel for planes, long term energy storage, and green hydrogen.
“If the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act becomes law, this collaboration will not only send us on a more durable path to net zero, but will create both immediate and long-term jobs in communities across the country,” Gates said in a statement.
Breakthrough Energy Ventures board members and investors include Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson, and Michael Bloomberg.
Gates may be right about needing an industrial revolution, but some of his ideas about what that would involve raise serious questions regarding just how viable his solutions are, particularly with regard to green hydrogen and long term underground storage of CO2.
Blue hydrogen is derived from methane in natural gas. It has previously been touted as a better alternative because the production emissions are captured and stored deep underground. However, new research indicates that this energy alternative could actually be worse than burning coal.
In addition, carbon dioxide is a byproduct of blue hydrogen production. While the plan is to capture and store the gas, the question remains as to what to do with that supply in the future. There is also concern about the long-term viability of holding it underground, reports Loz Blain of New Atlas.
Climate scientists Robert Howarth and Mark Jacobson, authors of the new study, point out this storage process is likely not as “clean” as previously thought. The Cornell and Stanford researchers, respectively, report that considerable amounts of methane escape into the atmosphere as natural gas is extracted from the Earth. Based on industry standards, they estimate the leakage rate at 3.5 percent of consumption for these “fugitive emissions,” or unintentionally leaked gases.
In just 20 years, one ton of methane emissions can warm the air 86 times more than carbon dioxide, reports Tim De Chant of Ars Technica.
Smithsonian Magazine
“We have a lot to do here on earth, Gates said as a guest on Climate Night held during NY’s anual Climate Week. (Late Night Hosts Unite to Spotlight Climate Change)
