"To start with, we need some tough love. It's time, Ritchie insists, to abandon the slogan Keep 1.5 alive, referring to an aspiration to limit global warming to 1.5C above preindustrial levels. The 1.5C target is dead, she announces flatly. The public who are repeatedly told that 1.5C is still within reach will start to lose trust when we pass that target."
"And then there is the good news. Since peaking in 2008, Ritchie reports, the amount of fossil fuels being burned for electricity in the UK has fallen by almost half. Battery technology has vastly improved and continues to do so. The solar panels China installed just in May of this year would meet the electricity needs of the whole of Poland."
"One route to bogosity is to dazzle the reader with large dollar costs for the rollout of greener technology, but Ritchie recommends always asking: Is that a big number? Compared with decades of fossil fuel subsidies and the health costs of pollution from coal plants, probably not. Always ask, too, How old is the data?: as Ritchie points out, the cost of solar power has fallen by more than 90% in the last decade."
Abandon the slogan Keep 1.5 alive because the 1.5C target is effectively dead and continued claims that it remains attainable will erode public trust when the limit is passed. Fossil-fuel electricity use has fallen sharply in some regions since 2008. Battery technology has improved substantially, and recent solar deployment can supply whole-country electricity needs in large markets. Technologies such as mineral recycling, low-carbon cement, electrified ferries and hydrogen for aviation offer credible low-carbon pathways. Many objections to scaling solar, wind and nuclear rely on outdated data or misleading cost comparisons; solar costs have fallen more than 90% in the last decade.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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