Eco-friendly technology isn’t Free
Eco-friendly technology isn’t free:
we need to reduce our energyconsumption right now. Going green will require more than simply ingenious new inventions.
International Energy Agency
If we want to limit global warming at 1.5 or even 2 degrees Celsius, we’ll need to make major changes to our energy and transportation systems. In the next three decades, the International Energy Agency estimates that millions of solar panels, wind turbines, and electric vehicles (EVs) will need to be manufactured and distributed around the world. Fortunately, these technologies are constantly developing and becoming more affordable.
Eco-friendly technology
Most eco-friendly technology, on the other hand, necessitates more and more diverse
resources than the technology it replaces. Wind turbines require iron and zinc for the
corrosion-resistant steel and motors required to capture wind energy. Lithium, cobalt, nickel, and manganese are all needed in the batteries of electric vehicles.
Building a large number of these devices will hence necessitate a large quantity of specific materials, many of which are difficult to obtain. Some can be obtained through recycling, but for many materials, such as lithium, there are simply insufficient quantities currently in use
that can be recovered for future use. Instead, the majority of the energy will have to come from mining.
This means that if low-carbon technology is to be widely adopted, we must accept the less appealing implications, or trade-offs, of developing it. Making a global conversion to electric vehicles, for example, might result in forest ecosystems being harmed in order to obtain lithium or cobalt.
Trade-offs
The environmental damage caused by mining and processing resources is a big trade-off. Aluminium, for example, is required for the manufacture of solar panel frames. Aluminium by 2050, which is equal to double the yearly emissions from planes. Switching from fossil fuels to hydroelectricity However, there is a significant opportunity to reduce these emissions. Switching from fossil
fuels to hydroelectricity as a source of electricity for aluminium manufacturing can lower emissions by up to 80%The difficulties in obtaining these materials go beyond the emissions they produce. Drilling
holes in salt flats to bring brine (salt water) to the surface, then evaporating the water using sunlight to leave potassium, manganese, borax, and lithium salts behind, is how Argentina,
Bolivia, and Chile extract lithium from brine.
The extent to which this brine counts as water, and hence how much its extraction affects water-stressed regions like Chile, is a point of contention. Those who argue that it should be classified as water argue that extracting it causes unneeded water scarcity and harms delicate ecosystems. Even if those who argue it isn’t water because of its high mineral concentration disagree, the long-term repercussions of its extraction must be considered.
Another important component of electric vehicle batteries is cobalt, which is largely mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Small-scale miners, who frequently employ children and have been accused of unsafe working conditions, poor safety records, and exploitative employment contracts, extract a substantial but unknown amount of cobalt.
Improve the Energy Efficiency
To assist reduce demand, we must improve the energy efficiency of our homes and
businesses so that they require less energy to begin with. Investing in public transportation
instead of private transportation will also assist to reduce mining demand. It will be
impossible to achieve a truly sustainable low-carbon transition without such efforts.
The Discussion
Timothy Laing, Senior Lecturer in Economics at the University of Brighton,has written an essay that has been republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence.