Dr. Conca says we need to institute a Clean Energy Standard that promotes all low-carbon energy rather than continuing with a Renewable Energy Standard that is narrowly-focused on wind and solar. If you care about climate change, and do not just have an ideological (aka political) stand on a particular energy source, then we need all low-carbon sources as fast as possible to have any hope of reigning in the most adverse environmental effects of burning fossil fuels. Along with an increasing abundance of gas, coal and oil, the present focus on renewables has stalled the effort to lower carbon emissions worldwide. Although global economic conditions have caused them to level off recently, global carbon emissions have simply not declined in any significant way. In fact, emissions are projected to increase because coal is still the first choice for developing countries. Coal is the easiest generation to install and does not require pipelines or a sophisticated electric grid, making it the fastest growing energy source in Asia and Africa. Emissions are certainly not declining fast enough to keep overall warming to 2.5 degrees C. The decline in carbon emissions needs to be at least 5% per year from 2016 to 2040, and if we can not meet that immediately, then they will have to decline by 9% per year between 2020 and 2040, an even more unlikely goal. Almost every leading climate scientist, and even some activists, have echoed this call for an all-out expansion of every low-carbon source. After we get carbon emissions under control, then we can debate about the best mix. Even though nuclear energy is in the process of proving that it is renewable (via the huge uranium reserves recently discovered and in perhaps recovering uranium from sea water economically), we can not wait for that meme to work its way through society before we take strong action to address climate change. Increased efficiency has slowed the growth of energy demand, but not reversed it.
The original URL: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2016/07/21/new-york-chooses-a-clean-energy-standard-as-the-best-way-to-address-climate-change/#a25f36f2f45d
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