have responded to the public health emergency that is the Covid-19 pandemic, then things would look very different. And if we were to do that, it would be possible to come up with an action plan that would ensure that 100% of the electricity that the world needs would be delivered from renewable energy sources by 2030.
Technologically speaking, that can be done. Financially speaking, that can be done – there is no shortage of capital to make that happen. Te only thing that stands between us and an appropriate emergency response is the politics. Tere is the frustration because you don’t tend to hear that narrative very much, and yet it ought to be giving people a sense of the doability of all of this, and a sense that this is the moment to actually get it done.
Te political cycle tends to operate in relatively short periods between elections. Does this pose a hindrance to achieving proper political commitment to what are some quite long-term issues?
It is a real problem. When Trump was elected in 2016, the world knew that we were in for four years of further delay, denial and obstruction, and so it proved to be. So far, President Biden has just been undoing four years of negative
consequences of Trump’s term in the White House, and it’s beginning to look good. Tere’s no doubt that President Biden and Vice-President Harris are focused on trying to achieve a good recovery after Covid, and a recovery that is based at least in part on a green deal – creating new jobs and new wealth creation, by addressing the climate emergency. It is a step in the right direction, but we still haven’t seen the level of commitment that we need to see from the US.
Talking energy, our need for energy remains huge and seeming growing at a vast scale globally. How can we solve this problem – does the answer lie in renewables, or is hydrogen potentially a key to net zero? Renewables addresses the electricity issue, but it doesn’t necessarily sort out some of the wider energy issues over the next decade, so we will need to see a number of new technologies coming forward.
Te hydrogen story needs to be treated with enormous care because to a large extent, the ‘hype’ surrounding this is being sponsored by the oil and gas industry. Tey are essentially ratcheting up the enthusiasm for hydrogen because what they hope is that governments (particularly
Both pages The Oakland Museum of California was conceived as a walled garden. The planting grows over the entire building, creating a lush, colourful space
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