5.3 Carbon-Based Economies Will Eventually Prove Cataclysmic
157
1961-2003
1993-2003
1.8
3.1
Fig. 5.8 Average sea level rise (in mm) (Source IPCC 2007)
energy strategies. Unfortunately, environmentalism had never been the vote bank
for the political establishments of developing nations where food and water security,
education, health, infrastructure, and employment (and not energy) play decisive role
in win/loss of governments.
Politics aside, the science of climate change is clearly of the view that global
warming in excess of 2 °C will be extremely challenging and therefore all nations
must work toward reducing the carbon intensity of production. Efforts of the pressure
groups did result in reducing the carbon intensity from 480 to 380 g CO 2 per USD
between 1990 and 2010 (Rozenberg et al. 2015). However, in order to maintain
less than 2 °C trajectories, most of the scientific models indicate a carbon intensity
between 33 and 73 g CO 2 per USD against the ongoing average of 360 g CO 2 per
USD (Box 2). This means radical shift in the ongoing production mechanisms to
carbon neutral system.
157
1961-2003
1993-2003
1.8
3.1
Fig. 5.8 Average sea level rise (in mm) (Source IPCC 2007)
energy strategies. Unfortunately, environmentalism had never been the vote bank
for the political establishments of developing nations where food and water security,
education, health, infrastructure, and employment (and not energy) play decisive role
in win/loss of governments.
Politics aside, the science of climate change is clearly of the view that global
warming in excess of 2 °C will be extremely challenging and therefore all nations
must work toward reducing the carbon intensity of production. Efforts of the pressure
groups did result in reducing the carbon intensity from 480 to 380 g CO 2 per USD
between 1990 and 2010 (Rozenberg et al. 2015). However, in order to maintain
less than 2 °C trajectories, most of the scientific models indicate a carbon intensity
between 33 and 73 g CO 2 per USD against the ongoing average of 360 g CO 2 per
USD (Box 2). This means radical shift in the ongoing production mechanisms to
carbon neutral system.