In 2018, NASA revealed that Asia glaciers were streaming slowly as they melted, which was affecting the water supply in the barren lands. In the same year, greenhouse gas emissions marked a record high. Arctic sea ice also reached its lowest extent on 19th September, 2018. In addition to this, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change declared that we have only until 2030 to deflect catastrophic climate change.
The world is headed for an excruciating future, but climate and energy news in 2018 wasn’t all bad.
Improved clean energy technology, cheaper technology and ambitious policies; these three big trends are sure to address the climate crisis.
In 2018, the political will to stand up against climate change not only gained momentum, but the greenhouse gases case became stronger. This year, most people were in favour of regulating greenhouse gases. Many activists stipulated for a comprehensive strategy, “Green Deal”, for decarbonizing the economy. Let’s have a closer look.
Improved Clean Energy Technology
2018 was the year when a wide range of new and established clean energy technologies were deployed. For instance, electric scooter rentals arrived in America, multiple companies invested in gigantic wind turbines, vast suite of new solar energy technologies were introduced and even many carbon dioxide spewing coal plants were closed down, despite of Trump administration’s continuous attempts to prop up the ailing industry.
Cheaper Technology
The massive decline in clean energy technology prices have been a big reason for renewable energy to take off. In United States, solar energy took off considerably after the reduction in prices.
SunShot Initiative propelled by US Department of Energy, in 2011, was a successful program. The initiative was launched with an objective to lower the overall cost of solar installations. Successfully, it hit the target with 6 cents per kilowatt hour and the initiative was 3 years ahead of schedule. With this successful launch, US Department of Energy set an even ambitious goal of 3 cents per kilowatt hour by 2030.
Ambitious Policies
According to the polls, climate change is not a top-tier issue in the US, but still the policies for addressing this concern have a broad support. Here are the results 2018 August survey of 22,000 Americans by Yale Program on Climate Change Communication.
The support is increasingly visible in policies at the local and state level. California Gov. Jerry Brown, signed an executive order in September 2018, committing the state to the most ambitious climate target, so far. With this, 2 states, 10 counties and 90 cities have set targets for 100% renewable energy.
The Record Breaking Purchase
In 2018, many organizations signed record breaking purchasing agreements for renewable energy. Ikea, Apple, Allianz and 158 other private companies targeted to power their operations with clean energy. Google has already been buying enough renewable energy to match its annual energy requirement.
If you haven’t thought about using solar power to reduce your carbon footprint yet, make sure you find the best solar companies in Yuba City CA and play your part in going green.
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