Earth:Technological Innovation for Climate Change Mitigation

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This photo shows a satellite image of light pollution and how much electricity is being used overnight around the earth.

Climate change has worsened at the hands of human activity for centuries, and many scientific efforts have been made since the first political acknowledgment. In order to avoid the ongoing and potential impacts of climate change, mitigation technologies have been developed in order to adapt to the issue, each invention belonging to one of four specific groups of effort. These groups include energy efficiency improvements, renewable energy (RE), nuclear power/energy (NE), and carbon capture storage (CCS). However, concerns regarding mitigating and adapting to climate change commonly have a priority focus on the groups of carbon capture storage and renewable energy efforts.

Traditionally, areas of western civilization around the world have the resources and finances to successfully develop and maintain technological mitigators to climate change. The research and development of these technologies require funding and incur high costs. There is a global inconsistency in producing these inventions, leaving developing countries without the means to defend themselves against the issue of climate change. Ironically, some of these areas are powerless enough while being the most inflicted by climate change in the world.

Climate change was mentioned as early as 1896 by Swedish chemist, Svante Arrhenius. The topic did not emerge as a political issue until the 1950s. Public policy is its own actor in the business of climate innovations through its control over the activity of emitting and reducing pollution inventions. Predominantly, legislature works to control the innovations particularly through placing restrictions on the amount of pollution that can be produced, and time crunches on when certain changes by companies using polluting inventions need to be completed by. It is up to the state that is implementing policy and the pollution-contributing businesses to work towards the implemented legal requirements in order to reach environmental goals by a set date.

Political Influence

The beginning of the era to protect the environment started with common law, founded in the law of nuisance. This introduction solely allowed for the action of private work to improve land when harmed (including removing the smell from pig stys, fixing broken dams, and enforcing strict liability). Any other enforcement was stringent to only deal with any major environmental threats, only being able to adequately protect the common resources. Profound regulation to protect the environment was first seen from England law, triggered by environmentally damaging events. Catastrophes such as the "Great Stink" (the dumping of sewage in a River Thames by parliament) ignited a movement in protective legislature to establish the Metropolitan Commission of Sewers Act 1848. As well, the "Great Smog" (a massive buildup of air pollution) promoted the development of England's Clean Air Act 1956. The environmental regulations imposed limitations on the amount of emissions from household and business establishments that can be produced, and inspectorate forces to ensure compliance. “Environmental law” only became a distinct and separate body of legislature in all developed and many developing nations in the 1960s, upon the recognition that the natural environment is in desperate need of aid to sustain itself, being so fragile.

While state regulations are in place to reduce emissions in effort to protect the environment's air quality, international initiatives have worked towards addressing the broader issues. For instance, the many chemicals that harm the ozone layer have been globally restricted to emit through the development of programs that focus on the trading of emissions (a focus reducing acid rain or adapting to climate change). The programs also collaborate to identify and categorize air pollutants and state the acceptable level of emissions and necessary mitigation technologies.

Water quality is also a prominent topic with the concern of improving the environment, as the factor has a direct and immediate impact on the life around it. State regulations per nation implement policies regarding sewage treatment and disposal, as well as managing all agricultural and industrial wastewater. Legislatures also work to control the level of surface runoff that comes from construction sites in predominantly urban environments. Additionally, international efforts also look to identify and categorize water pollutants and state the acceptable concentration levels in water resources.

Moreover, policies are able to manage municipal solid waste, hazardous waste, and nuclear waste, among many other types through governance of its transportation, treatment, storage, and disposal. In terms of containment clearance (of sediment, soil, surface, and ground water), there are policies that work as a protective, rather than preventative measure. They are administered through response actions that are vital to repairing damaged media of the environment. Not only are policies needed for improvements, but as well the effort by people to undertake responsibility or pay for it. Governed actions include emergency response services, liability allocation, assessing the site, remedial investigation and action, feasibility studies, site reuse, and post-remedial monitoring.

Finally, laws that govern man-made chemical safety from modern industrial application include the management of human activities. These policies strictly work to ban some chemical pollutants (particularly in consumer products, such as Bisphenol A material in plastic bottles) and regulate pesticides.

Scientific Background

Technological change and scientific processes play an important role through research, inspiring the creation, distribution and exploitation of knowledge. These scientific advances improve technological innovation for climate change mitigation. They are vital to use in strategizing methods to adaptation, being necessary while climate change threatens the world. Presently national technology systems focus on growth in jobs and output, instead of reducing greenhouse gas emissions or increasing energy efficiency. Adaptation strategies are meant to reduce any vulnerability of available technologies and the need for adaptation at all with scientific technologies including energy efficiency improvements, and production of renewable energy (RE), nuclear power/energy (NE), and carbon capture storage (CCS).

Energy Efficiency Improvements

Energy efficiency is a concept used to define the focus of tackling climate change by creating energy efficient technologies and products (they are meant to use less energy to provide the same service). Energy efficiency is an important tool for climate adaptation because it preserves and extends resources in the long-run. It also minimizes the costs for the state in adapting the energy sector for climate change. The least costly way to meet the increased demand for energy is by saving energy. However, developing countries struggle with the trade-off between energy efficiency and economic performance in keeping up with their expanding economies, since they require large increases in energy production and consumption. Improving energy efficiency does not only include the effort to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. It varies and depends on the energy being supplied for the particular technology, such as fossil fuels from a coal-fired plant that produces gasoline for cars. Improved efficiency will cut emissions for fossil fueled technologies compared to low carbon sources, such as electricity which is produced from renewable energy. Nonetheless, improving energy efficiency is a key tool for reducing carbon dioxide emissions and most low carbon sources (which includes renewable energy and carbon capture storage).

Renewable Energy (RE)

Renewable energy is generated from natural resources, such as sunlight, wind, and rain. Renewable technologies function from resources that vary from solar power, wind power, to hydroelectricity and are constantly renewed. Renewable energy technologies have an advantage over conventional energy systems, as they have a much lower impact on the environment and are considered a clean source of energy. A disadvantage to using renewable energy includes the source's unstable market, with uncertain profitability from the competition of fossil fuels. The energy source therefore is not in a likely position to gain much support from the state and private sector. Renewable sources are being encouraged to address the issues and challenges that arise from greenhouse gas inflictions. Most renewable energy technologies are generated from sunlight, which creates solar energy (power). This solar energy is the most efficient renewable resource on the planet, predominantly generating electricity but also sourcing power for the purposes of heating and water purification. Solar energy is conducted using heat from the sun, which is absorbed by wind turbines, in capturing wind that generates wind power. The use of solar renewable technologies plays a large roll in emission reduction for mitigating climate change, reducing air pollution and addressing concerns with energy security.

Nuclear Energy (NE)

Nuclear power is conducted by the released nuclear energy from nuclear reactions. The power is ignited heat from reactions, which is most commonly used in the powering of electricity-producing steam turbines, located in nuclear power plants. Nuclear fission is a type of nuclear reaction that is a leading form of low carbon power generation. The commercialization of entire power stations was first introduced in the 1970s. Entire power stations that are run by fission-electricity are known to have emission values that are lower than that of renewable energy stations in terms of a greenhouse gas emissions per cycle (of a generated unit of energy). The median value of all commercial sources for baseload energy is lowest for this method and second to lowest for all technologies of commercial electricity. The first establishments of these plants prevented 64 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide, emitted by the thermal power stations that burn fossil fuels. Nuclear power is acclaimed by the World Nuclear Association and Environmentalists for Nuclear Energy to be the safe and sustainable energy source in reducing carbon emissions. Retrospectively, the corporations of Greenpeace International and NIRS are known to be opposed to nuclear power, arguing that it threatens the environment more than anything.

Carbon Capture Storage (CCS)

Carbon dioxide is a major greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change, and its levels have increased from human activity, promoting incidents such as fossil fuel combustion. One of the main technologies meant for reducing carbon dioxide emissions is carbon capture storage (CCS). This involves the absorption of carbon dioxide to prevent it from entering the atmosphere from emitting sources, such as natural gas processing plants or power plants. Carbon capture storage is a technology that can capture up to 90 percent of carbon dioxide emissions that result from the use of fossil fuels in generating electricity or industrial processes. Fossil fuels impact the environment when combusted in quantities that restrict the ability to stabilize safe levels of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere. Carbon capture storage involves a three-step process of acquiring the carbon dioxide, transporting it, and securely storing it away. First, the technology separates the carbon dioxide from the gases produced in the electricity generation or industrial processes in methods of pre-combustion captures, post combustion capture, or oxy-fuel combustion. Then, the separated carbon dioxide is transported for safe storage via either pipeline or ship. The carbon dioxide is stored carefully in depleted natural gas fields or selected geologic rock formations underground, that are usually located a few kilometres underneath the earth's surface. The further development of advances in carbon capture technologies means for more success in future capture processes. The main barrier is the cost and efficiency issues of capturing carbon dioxide from power generation.

Economic Factors

Economic factors need to be taken into account when determining the current and expected future improvements of technologies for climate change adaptation. The economic factors, which are described through the supply and demand chain, are important for understanding the rate and direction of the progresses of technological change. The state determines the supply, based on the relevant scientific and technological knowledge and opportunity. As well, the state assesses the costs and availability of resources, such as the trained technicians and experienced workers that are involved in the research processes to create and improve climate change adaptation technologies. Whereas, the demand for innovation depends on the amount of cost reduction from the particular technology being used, as well as the consumer and producer benefit from a new or improved technology for existing goods.

Technologies for climate change mitigation are meant to create energy efficient products and services that result in economic benefits to its consumers and to the environment. The state can track energy efficiency improvements through the policies that regulate prices in markets.

In an economic perspective, greenhouse gas emissions are considered ‘externalities’ that are not fully traded and priced in markets, lacking credible market value. Addressing climate change becomes an issue for society and cannot be achieved simply from the progresses of private markets, consumers and producers. Issues such as, directly regulating personal choices to reduce greenhouse gas emissions will require the government to outlaw large cars, raise carbon or fossil fuel taxes, and even increase public transit spending. Furthermore, subsidising production and diffusion throughout society is politically less challenging because technological innovation is substantial to economic growth. Energy efficiency improvements directly affect the consumers (i.e. in 2016, the Canadian government helped citizens’ save $12 billion in energy costs in 2013, accumulating an average savings of $869 per household).

For technological innovation to achieve economic sustainability, an economy would have to ensure responsible and limited use of natural resources that are non-renewable or not harmful to the environment, such as fossil fuels or uranium. A sustainable economy uses various strategies for engaging optimal resources, to achieve a beneficial balance in the long term. Presently, there is technology already existing that can effectively reduce and even stabilize greenhouse gas levels within the next few decades. However, the issue is that it is economically and politically difficult to initiate and install energy efficient products, using renewable energy sources (i.e. wind power). Social and political barriers limit the progress of implementing technologies and meeting the demands of effective climate change mitigation.

See also

• Environmental law
• Nuclear Power

References

• Raiser, K.; Naims, H.; Bruhn, T. (2017). "Corporatization of the climate? Innovation, intellectual property rights, and patents for climate change mitigation". Energy Research & Social Science 27: 1–8. doi:10.1016/j.erss.2017.01.020.