No quick switch to low-carbon energy

n the first of two pieces on reducing greenhouse-gas emissions, Gert Jan Kramer and Martin Haigh analyse historic growth in energy systems to explain why deploying alternative technologies will be a long haul.

Summary

• There are physical limits to the rate at which new technologies can be deployed
• Governments need to design policies targeted at specific technologies to accelerate deployment
• More action is required on demand side to increase efficiency and curtail consumption

To combat climate change, the world's entire energy system needs a major overhaul before the middle of the century. But can we build new energy supplies that quickly? Some argue that with the right incentives we can see similar rates of change in the energy system as have been seen in information technology. So most of the debate focuses on how much the transition will cost and who will foot the bill. Here, we argue that cost is less important than the rate at which existing low-carbon energy technologies can be physically deployed. Because the scale of the energy system is so huge, it takes time to build the human and industrial capacity to achieve substantial deployment.

Gert Jan Kramer & Martin Haigh

Read on | Nature.com

Labels: Climate Change, Copenhagen

- posted by DD @ 2:23 p.m. Perma Link/Print  

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