Global Warming is the greatest challenge that humanity must face
and resolve to avoid the worst catastrophe of modern history. The warming of the planet is underway and the
consequences are visible in the intensification every year of extreme natural
phenomena such as hurricanes, cyclones, droughts, floods, melting of glaciers,
rising sea levels…Emissions, caused mostly from fossil
fuels, which are cause global warming, continue to increase.
Scientists claim that there are only 12 years left before
touching the point of no return of an increase of the earth’s
temperature beyond the 1.5 degree threshold with respect to pre-industrial
levels! Reaching this point of no return would lead to extreme phenomena so
acute and frequent as to cause tens of millions of deaths and displacement of
hundreds of millions of people due to the rise in sea levels and vast
desertification. Disaster can and must
be averted, but we must immediately act on several fronts.
There are at least four fundamental components to the fight
against Global Warming:
I.
INDIVIDUAL BEHAVIOURS
It is ever more necessary for individuals to change their habits
for more sustainable behaviours and consumption. Here are some examples of behaviours to
follow:
- Apply the famous three “R"s of ecology - REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE - in every action that uses natural resources.
- Reduce food waste. Economically richer societies waste a lot of food. My mother used to tell us when we were children that “food is God’s gift, and you don’t waste God’s gift.”
- Reduce meat and fish consumption. Both mostly come from intensive farming and can be harmful to people’s health because they employ hormones to fatten animals and antibiotics to prevent them from getting sick - these substances end up to a certain degree in the food chain and are detrimental to our health. Furthermore, animal farms consume from 3 to 5 times the amount of land needed to feed a vegetarian person. It would therefore be necessary to drastically reduce meat consumption and favour a predominantly vegetarian diet, preferably with organic products and at 0 Km (for example, my daughter has become vegetarian for ethical and ecological reasons).
- Only use LED
lighting for the home. Limit heating and
air conditioning in the home.
Use home appliances such as washing machines and dishwashers only when they are fully loaded and preferably at night. - Preferably use public transport and sparingly the car.
Individual behaviours are fundamental, however they are not
sufficient. In fact, I believe that
educated and socially responsible people represent about 10% of the population
of developed countries, that is about 100 million individuals, plus another 100
million for the rest of the world, therefore about 200 million people on a
world population of about 7.5 billion people.
Responsible and committed citizens continue to increase, but the time
horizon is long and therefore individual behaviours alone are not enough.
II. BEHAVIOURS OF LARGE MULTINATIONALS
Corporate Social Responsibility including Environmental
Sustainability awareness is continuously growing amongst medium and large
companies. If the 1000 largest
multinationals (especially manufacturing companies), would commit to reaching “zero
emissions” within the next 10 years, a great step forward would have
been achieved towards the rescuing of the planet and of humanity.
Fortunately, many large companies are already “zero
emissions”, for example Google and Apple, and the numbers and
commitments continue to grow. And even
in this field, responsible citizens can put pressure on companies where they
work for a more responsible ecological behaviour. Union organisations can do the same.
III. GOVERNMENT POLICIES THAT FAVOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Unfortunately, there are only still very few governments who have
environmental sustainability as a priority of their political agenda. Amongst the great nations (in terms of
population), which are most committed are China, Japan, Germany, and
Scandinavian countries… and the results are visible. Italy, regretfully, is not amongst these,
even though we have many natural resources such as sun, wind, and water, to be
able to become a country at Zero Emissions within 10 years, if there were the
necessary policies implemented that would also bring strong positive economic
growth and widespread improved health for all citizens.
Here are some examples of policies for sustainability:
1.
Eliminate coal electric plants. Coal is amongst the most polluting fossil
fuels, and yet there are still many coal power plants in the world: about 40%
of world electric energy is produced from coal (even Italy still has 12 coal
plants). The elimination of these
power plants should be the first priority of all responsible governments,
enforcing by law the shutdown of coal plants or their conversion to methane gas
in a period of maximum 10 years, supplying at the same time incentives for
conversion.
2.
Policies of incentives for renewable sources of
energy, in particular for privately owned small solar installations of 3 to 10
KW, as well as for distributed storage systems.
3.
Build large infrastructures on rail, such as
urban subway and train lines at medium/high speed for intercity transport and
long distances.
4.
Stimulate the purchase of electric and hybrid
plug-in vehicles.
5.
Educate citizens to differentiate waste and
impose strong fines for infringement.
6.
Outlaw production of non biodegradable plastic.
7.
Ban intensive livestock farming and favour open
air animal farms.
8.
Help farmers create solar greenhouses for the
production of fruit and vegetables at low water consumption, producing energy
at the stame time.
IV. ACCELERATION OF TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS FOR SUSTAINABILITY
Technological developments will be the major component and driver
for solving the sustainability problem, because
it will make economically convenient, without incentives,
eco-sustainable products and solutions.
Already today, technological progresses are enormous: for example,
photovoltaic panels for small distributed systems cost 2K Euro per KW, while 12
years ago (when I installed them on my vacation home roof) their cost was 6K
Euro per KW.
1. Solar panels
and electricity storage. The cost of
photovoltaic panels today is 2K Euros per KW for small distributed systems
(including installation) and just over 1K Euros per KW for large photovoltaic
parks. Similar reductions as for solar,
took place in the last 10 years for wind power farms. And the same reduction has taken place for accumulators,
and costs keep going down. They will probably halve in the next 5/7 years. In addition, mini local interconnected “intelligent"
networks will optimise the use of electrical energy produced from these
distributed clean energy sources without weighing too much on the national
distribution network.
2. E-
mobility. Electric mobility is
developing very rapidly: in 2018 new electric vehicle registrations in the
world have been nearly 2 million, that is almost double those of 2016. I
believe this trend will continue with new registrations that will reach 4
million worldwide in 2020, 8 million in 2022, 6 million in 2024 and over 30
million in 2026. In the meantime,
storage batteries will have significantly improved allowing autonomies of 500
km already by 2024 and of over 800 km by 2027.
Finally, the infrastructures for recharging will grow tremendously and
times to recharge will be reduced to a few hours at home, a few tens of minutes
in public fast recharging facilities in the city (such as at shopping centers
and parkings), and to a few minutes in super fast charging points in the main
roads and highways. I believe that by
the end of the 2020s, new registrations of electric cars in the world will
exceed those of engines with internal combustion.
IV. CARBON SEQUESTRATION
Another promising innovation is that of a potential machine that
can “absorb" CO2 from the atmosphere and use it as
fertiliser. A prototype of such a
machine is being tested and could be mass produced within 3/4 years.
These four fundamental components make me optimistic on the
possibility that we can defeat potential Global Warming catastrophe. The first component, that is individual
behaviours, remains key both for its direct contribution as for the impulse it
can give to the other components.
