How to avoid a climate disaster
The first thing that trapped me was the simple language used to describe the matter and how easy it is to follow the logic the author uses to present, recall and repeat facts and how the rhetoric flows from one chapter to the next. What you are going to read in this review is how the decarbonization of the chemical is imbedded within the pages, without necessarily being mentioned in this specific way. Additionally, I try to mimic the language as well.
The book starts with a powerful statement, numerical facts. Moreover, the 51 billions to zero sticks around. If I go back to the first blog I published, where to start, asking why? and I compared it to the 1.5 Gt CO2 the chemical industry emits it seems we are talking about something less urgent to tackle, which is far from reality, but still it gets less attention. (here I just applied the first question one must ask in first place, how much of the 51 billion tons are we talking about?).
Slowly we start unravelling where the subject at hand (remember, the decarbonization of one of the industries) will be discussed, as it is, when making and growing things.
To begin with, plastics are called the baby of the group when it comes to making things. They are cheap as well because fossil fuels are cheap. Furthermore, when examining the green premium for ethyline, meaning the additional cost for the zero-carbon solutions, this one is established somewhere between 9-15%. The good news is that this is not such a show stopper, specially if we compared it to cement, for example.
The path to zero emissions in manufacturing looks like something similar to what we have discussed in some blog posts:
Electrify every process possible. (You may be interested in reading Electrification of heat)
Get that electricity from a power grid that’s been decarbonized. (You may be interested in reading Digging into the energy roadmaps for clues)
Use carbon capture to absorb the remaining emissions (You may be interested in reading Carbon Capture and Storage)
Use materials more efficiently. (You may be interested in reading Material Efficiency)
Synthetic fertilizers are the key to growing things. It is a pity the green premium can not be fully calculated in this case (unknown green house emissions when the fertilizer is applied).
Finally I completely agree with the plan for getting to zero which includes, between other measures, working with industry from the beginning.
Disclaimer: If you are interested in the book yourself, the image redirects you to my affiliate link.
