We spoke to some experts in the field to find out what needs to happen for Europe to become carbon neutral.
1. It will affect everyone, from individuals to industry.
According to Dr Kirsten Dunlop, Executive Director of the Climate Knowledge and Innovation Community at the European Institute of Innovation and Technology, which supports innovation for climate action, there are a lot of areas that will need to change to achieve short-term goals. of total decarbonization.
“We are looking across the entire landscape,” he said. “ Decarbonisation encompasses the physical footprint of cities, since they produce more than two-thirds of emissions in Europe. Cities then expand into peri-urban areas (near cities). And that then leads to the industrial landscape. “
The challenges are vast, with a “huge variety of things happening in different countries,” according to Paul Ekins, professor of environmental and resource policy at University College London, UK. The main trends so far have been to move away from coal, switch to renewable energy and improve the development of batteries to store renewable energy. But much remains to be done.
“In countries like the UK, there is a very insufficient housing stock that is heated almost entirely by gas, and that will have to change,” said Professor Ekins. “So it is a huge challenge for consumers, because everyone is used to having their own little gas boiler.”
2. We are not currently doing enough to decarbonize
Despite all the progress made towards decarbonisation, it is clear that we still have to do more. “The data shows we are off track,” said Pete Harrison, executive director for EU Policy at the European Climate Foundation, a non-profit organization. “Certainly the plans for 2030 suggest that we will not meet (the EU climate targets for 2030). So more needs to be done in terms of policy to create real change in societies. “
Some of the main problems of decarbonization remain political, namely whether people will be willing to vote for people to make the tough decisions that will be necessary to become carbon neutral. “We have yet to see the real political action,” said Professor Ekins.
The world needs not only to increase its targets, but also its ambition to avoid the two degrees of warming established in the Paris Agreement. And to achieve that, a refined policy will be an absolute necessity, rather than empty promises.
3. Coal, Housing, and Cars May All Be “Quick Profits”
Along with the broader goals of reducing carbon emissions across the board, there are some short-term solutions we can work on. One of them is energy efficient housing, with numerous projects already underway to reduce the carbon footprint of people’s homes. “In certain homes, energy efficiency can be a quick win ,” said Professor Ekins.
In the big picture, Harrison says the first step should be to phase out coal, which we have already started to see in Western Europe. “What we need to see is that the trend spreads into Eastern Europe,” he said, “so that they can really modernize their economies and keep up with the technology innovation curve instead of falling behind.”
And, adds Harrison, Europe needs to get to the forefront of electric car technology ‘as soon as possible’, not only for the benefits it will bring to climate and air quality, but also for competitive reasons like other countries like China. . and the United States is making important strides in this area.
4. People can make a difference
Dr. Dunlop says individual action is “essential” to achieving our decarbonization goals, including shifting our eating habits away from meat, reducing our dependence on automobiles, decreasing the energy footprint of our homes. and more. “Decision makers across Europe are really starting to make a big difference,” he said.
One effort in this regard has been the Fridays for Future movement, inspired by Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, who has asked people not to use cars, eat meat and avoid other high-carbon activities every Friday: a possible look at what is a decarbonized. The world could be seen if we act together. However, encouraging people to act is key.
“There is a well-known phenomenon in the literature called the attitude-behavior gap (where people don’t act even if they care about a problem),” said Professor Ekins. “ Clearly closing that attitude-behavior gap is important. Something like energy efficiency in homes, it is truly inconceivable that the government is going to pay for that considerable investment itself in full. So yeah, there are things that people can do. “
5. Carbon neutrality will save money in the long run
Estimates to reach a future carbon neutral by 2050 suggest that up to 2% of GDP will have to be spent annually. But if we can truly achieve this goal, Harrison says that society can reap the benefits not only in terms of the weather, but also from a financial perspective.
“A renewable, flexible and efficient energy system is cheaper for Europe than a fossil-based system,” he said. In this scenario, “the costs (of the broader energy system in Europe) are actually reduced by 23 billion euros a year. In general, this is not a cost, it is actually a saving for society. “
Original article
This article was originally published in Horizon, the EU Research and Innovation Magazine
