Thirteenth International Conference on Climate Change: Impacts & Responses

Abstract

Society should follow a pathway for reducing emissions toward a better future. Here are ideas considered in this study: 1. Replacing coal for renewables. After observing the data about coal consumption, provided by Enerdata, and bp, the planet continuous to increase its consumption (+0,7 ~ 0,9 %), result led by Asia (+8%), in particular, China and India. The positive behaviors are shown by USA (lowest consumption level in 40 years) and the EU (reduction for the sixth year in a row). The coal global production grew around in a 1,9% led by China (45% of the global production). According with coal trade, coal level of imports increased in the highest amount in four years; China and India represent the 35% of total imports worldwide. Energy has multiple sources, this analysis chose coal because of the total fuels emissions, coal represents the highest level of emissions (44%), while oil emits (33%), and Gas (23%). 2. Moving toward renewables. Contrary to this bleak panorama, the share of renewables in the global energy mix is growing, and the protagonists are: European Union and Latin America. In 2018, the renewables represented the 26% of total electricity production. Switching to renewables is clever because, in a finite planetary carbon budget: a 50% chance of limiting warming to ≤2°C by 2050, and taking into account the global emissions until 2018, it is only allowed to emit 26,19 GtCO2/year (let’s remember the last levels of emission, 2017: 36,8 GtCO2, and 2018: 37,1 GtCO2).