Electrifying Transportation Sector is Key IPCC

As the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) meets in Poland it is instructive to review the carbon emissions targets proposed in the Paris agreement of 2015. A global temperature rise of 1.5 degrees Celsius represents the threshold to avoid extreme heat and weather events, sustained damage to planet ecosystems, and to avert a run-away condition caused by methane released when polar permafrost melts.  

The report found that holding warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius could save an Alaska-size area of the Arctic from permafrost thaw, muting a feedback loop that could lead to still more global emissions.

We have a decade to meet the 1.5 degree target:

1. Increase renewable energy production from presently 24% to 60%
2. Retrofit operating coal plants with Carbon Capture Systems CCS
3. By 2050 most coal plants must shut down 
4. Transportation sector must strongly electrify 
5. 4% of transportation is electric, a 1% increase by 2022 is projected.
6. To meet 1.5 C Emissions rather than fuel must be the coal industry focus.

To meet the 1.5C scenario, the transportation sector must electrify and carbon capture CCS is essential -  Washington Post.  Some institutions have taken note of the goal, universities religious institutions and some cities have divested their pension funds from big oil - The Guardian.

2/10/19 UPDATE:  It’s official: Last year was the fourth-hottest year on record, after only the previous three, according to separate figures released Wednesday morning by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and NASA. Read billion-dollar weather and climate related disasters there. 

-LS