Restoring the world’s ecosystems has become a major challenge, involving the decarbonization of our activities and the commitment to an electrified economy.

June 5th is a date highlighted in green on many agendas across the planet. It is not in vain that this day is celebrated as World Environment Day, promoted by the United Nations and hosted this year by Pakistan. But beyond the symbolic significance of this date, which joins so many others that may dominate our calendars, the event has a unique significance and opportunity. After decades in which agreements to reduce climate impact seemed to lack consensus, the social and political landscape has shifted in recent years toward a greater commitment to the decarbonization of our economy. This becomes the great hope for the conservation of the planet’s ecosystems, which are under great pressure from ever-increasing human activity and population.

But, before focusing on possible solutions and reviewing what has changed in the last decade, we must pause for a moment to highlight the explanations and scientific data that prove that our planet is facing a true climate emergency and that certify why we must act for complete decarbonization. And there are still detractors of this reality:

• The concentration of GHGs in the Earth’s atmosphere is directly related to the average global temperature of the Earth.
• This concentration has been progressively increasing since the Industrial Revolution and, with it, the temperature of the planet.
• The most abundant GHG, around two-thirds of all types of GHGs, is carbon dioxide (CO2), which results from the burning of fossil fuels.

These three factors have, in turn, translated into some truly worrying data:

• The average global temperature has already increased by 1.1°C since pre-industrial times and could reach 4.8 °C by the end of the century if no action is taken.
• In the 20th and 21st centuries, the global average sea level rose by 19 cm, due to the decline of the so-called “ice lands”.
• The extent of Arctic sea ice has decreased every decade since 1979, with a loss of 1.07 × 10 ⁶ km² of ice every ten years.
• The average sea level rise is estimated to be between 24 and 30 centimeters by 2065 and 40 to 63 centimeters by 2100 in in relation to the reference period of 1986-2005.
• According to the WHO, this poses a series of health risks, such as increased mortality due to extremely high temperatures or changes in the distribution of infectious diseases.

5 facts about climate change climate

Climate change: a challenge and, at the same time, a great opportunity for society

Although the data leave no room for doubt and present a complex scenario, the real possibility of our society evolving towards a decarbonized economy represents an opportunity that is both environmental and social and economic. Let us consider the example of Spain, which recently presented the so-called “National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan” (PNIEC). This roadmap shows how the green economy could provide 1,500,000 jobs in this country alone by 2030; a real boost that will require an investment of 241 billion euros between 2021 and 2030, with 80% of this being private and the remaining 20% ​​public.

So much so that this economic and social opportunity is what has led to the implementation of large green projects in recent years that, until now, seemed unthinkable and that combine a formula for success in many other areas: a framework of legislative and political stability around the energy sector and a combined commitment of the public and private sectors to its development.

Agreements such as the one signed in 2015 by 196 countries in the so-called “Paris Agreement” (despite the abandonment of its main promoter, the United States, after the arrival of the Trump Administration, and subsequent rejoining after Biden’s rise to the White House), and initiatives such as the “European Green Deal” only certify that the commitment to paralysis Climate change is not only necessary, but urgent and decisive, as well as stable for private investment. Added to this is a society that has internalized the climate problem and demands a more ambitious roadmap from its leaders. A reading that the private sector has seen as a window of opportunity from a business and employment point of view.

All of this has meant that next November 2021 will be marked on all international agendas. It will be on that date when the signatories of the “Paris Agreement” will meet again, this time in Glasgow, to renew and/or promote the roadmap that, despite being a milestone, failed to be as ambitious as intended. In addition to the expectations generated by this event, there are also major declarations of intent such as the one made during the UN General Assembly in September 2020, when Chinese President Xi Jinping announced that his country aimed to become carbon neutral by 2060. Something that, until a few years ago, would have seemed unusual.

5 hopeful milestones on climate change climate

On the other hand, the fight against climate change has found a strange ally: COVID-19. The pandemic has put our societies on the ropes, experiencing a strange nightmare and shaking our economies. This has required economic and social recovery plans that involve the decarbonization of our economies through investment incentives in green energy. Examples of this are the economic recovery plans of the European Union and the United States, which aim to mobilize billions of dollars in investments of this type to make the green economy a lever for change for decarbonization and the recovery of the productive fabric.

But none of this could be developed without a favorable and profitable technological context. The technology for the fight against climate change is not only not yet developed or profitable, but it is already implemented and is 100% profitable. Whether we’re talking about photovoltaic, wind, electricity transmission and distribution, or electric storage batteries, they’re all, at the very least, profitable. So much so that the profitability of wind and photovoltaic energy has ousted fossil fuels as the primary source of electricity production in most regions of the world. This requires a major modernization of our electricity grid to prepare it for greater multi-point penetration of renewable generation sources. Furthermore, we must not forget the electric vehicle sector, which, although it has not yet translated into global market leadership, has burst into the sector and is set to lead sales by the end of this decade thanks to an industry that has left its doubts behind and is beginning to firmly commit to transport by and for energy decarbonization.

The European Green Deal: a continental consensus for decarbonization

Objectives of the European Green Deal

Last December, Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, presented an ambitious plan to make Europe the first climate-neutral continent by 2050. This plan, called the European Green Deal. This plan sets the year 2030 as an “intermediate goal”, by which emissions will have to be reduced by at least 55% compared to the emission measurements obtained in 1990 in the territory of the European Union.

The roadmap sets the goals of achieving climate neutrality for the European continent by 2050 through the ddecarbonization of energy (energy production and use accounts for more than 75% of greenhouse gas emissions in the European Union); the renovation of buildings, helping to reduce their bills and energy use (40% of citizen energy consumption corresponds to buildings); helping European industry become a world leader in the so-called green economy (currently the use of recycled materials in industry is only 12%, with industry accounting for 20% of total emissions in the Community territory); and the promotion of sustainable mobility through cleaner, cheaper, and healthier public and private transportation systems (transportation accounts for 25% of our harmful emissions into the atmosphere).