"To accelerate progress, we need to speak clearly about the threat of climate change," said Ali Zaidi, White House climate advisor, during Economist Impact's Sustainability Week U.S. conference in New York City. "If we don't discuss the impacts of…
ASLA 2023 Professional General Design Honor Award. The Meadow at the Old Chicago Post Office Honor Award. Chicago, Illinois. Hoerr Schaudt / Dave Burk
"To accelerate progress, we need to speak clearly about the threat of climate change," said Ali Zaidi, White House climate advisor, during Economist Impact's Sustainability Week U.S. conference in New York City.
"If we don't discuss the impacts of extreme heat, we won't know its effects on productivity," Zaidi said. "If we don't understand the risks of sea level rise, we won't see the impacts on the insurability of valuable coastal resources."
The two-day summit with government, non-profit, and corporate leaders pushed back against recent "green hushing" trends.
The leaders outlined how different sectors are reducing greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to increasing impacts. But they also got real about many of the challenges still ahead in the transition to a zero-emission world.
Gina McCarthy, former White House climate advisor and now head of America Is All In, said the U.S.'s historic investments in tackling climate change showed the world that "the game has changed."
She argued the Biden-Harris administration approach has been successful because it "didn't ask people to sacrifice." Instead, the Inflation Reduction Act created new programs and tax credits that "lower costs and create jobs for Americans."
The legislation was designed to "unlock and transition" the U.S. economy after the pandemic. "It's a market-based strategy; we didn't exclude any solution." The challenge is to now encourage other countries to scale up their climate investments.
David Crane with the U.S. Department of Energy outlined how recent Biden-Harris administration tax credits for clean energy have catalyzed $1.5 trillion in new investment and $80 billion in new grants will spur renewable energy innovation.
While these are historic levels of government investment, "there were still challenges getting the funds out the door. We needed to stand up 56 new programs and organize competitive bids." But he said these programs are working: "We were five to ten times oversubscribed," meaning there were far more applicants than funds available.
He added that if the administration changes, the grants can't be reversed. "Contracting can't be undone." Crane said "red states," including Texas, Louisiana, and other Gulf Coast states received the most renewable energy investments.
Government investment in the clean energy transition is critical, but well-functioning markets are also needed.
Investment in nature-based solutions is growing worldwide. But one key tool for funding nature -- carbon offset markets -- has been undermined by a string of recent controversies.
There are so many concerns about carbon markets that new groups have formed to restore integrity to these markets. And the Biden-Harris administration recently recently issued a set of principles.
He is pushing for "high-integrity carbon credits," including improved forestry credits.
He believes carbon markets can be an effective tool for growing a range of solutions to decarbonize the planet. And those solutions -- like protecting and restoring landscapes, community solar, or new building materials -- can provide many co-benefits.
But carbon markets need to improve quickly. Otherwise, "are we supposed to just wait 15 years when carbon capture and storage technologies become cost competitive? We need a basket of short-term and long-term solutions. Technology is a long-term solution."
Carbon capture can happen through nature-based solutions or carbon capture and storage systems. The consensus at the summit was both approaches are needed, a conclusion consistent with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
But there was little substantive discussion at Economist Impact on nature-based solutions.
Efforts to protect and restore 30 percent of the planet's ecosystems by 2030 are crucial to growing natural carbon sinks.
Nature-based solutions to climate change provide important co-benefits: increased resilience, improved health and well-being, enhanced biodiversity, and increased jobs and investment.
But the focus this year was on carbon capture and storage, which largely take the form of giant vacuums that pull carbon dioxide out of the air and then pump those gases miles underground. This infrastructure is designed for one use and doesn't offer co-benefits beyond some job creation.
According to the U.S. Department of Energy, carbon capture and storage is also still very expensive.
These "mechanical trees" are now extracting carbon at a price of $500 per ton, which represents a 50 percent decrease in cost over the past few years. But European Union currently prices a ton of carbon at $100, so these systems need to continue to improve. (For comparison, just one hectare of forest stores anywhere between 10 and 1,000 tons of carbon).
Economist Impact also looked at challenges in decarbonizing cities, which account for 75 percent of global emissions.
New York City has one million buildings but the largest 65,000 account for the majority of building emissions, said Rohit Aggarwal, Commissioner of the NYC Department of Environmental Protection.
The city has set a carbon budget for its building stock, mandating a path to zero emissions by 2050. The cost of transforming all the city's buildings will be in the tens of billions.
Nature-based solutions can help cities like NYC decarbonize, said ASLA CEO Torey Carter-Conneen. Bio-solar roofs offer proven benefits in reducing energy use. They also create wildlife habitat, capture stormwater, cool communities, and create design, construction, and maintenance jobs.
"Nature-based solutions work best with an integrated, multi-faceted approach. They can't be excluded from the conversation."
No comments:
Post a Comment