Questions that came up at our webinar about our book, Solving Climate Change: A Guide for Learners and Leaders

On May 10, 2023, Ian Monroe and I gave a live webinar for the Institute of Physics (IOP) about our latest book, Solving Climate Change: A Guide for Learners and Leaders. The webinar is still posted at the Physics World website, and if you register you can watch it on demand:

https://physicsworld.com/a/solving-climate-change-with-jonathan-koomey-and-ian-monroe/

Other links to the book and related materials:

http://www.solveclimate.org

https://iopscience.iop.org/book/mono/978-0-7503-4032-8

The 1st chapter, free download: https://iopscience.iop.org/book/mono/978-0-7503-4032-8/chapter/bk978-0-7503-4032-8ch1

Instructors can request an examination copy from IOP publishing: shorturl.at/qrLM0

After that webinar, four questions came back from the audience. Ian and I answered them, and I thought it would be good to post them here as well.

If you listen to the webinar or read the book and have questions, Email me and we’ll add them to the list of answered questions so others can benefit.

Question 1: For an individual with limited reach, do you have any advice when it comes to dealing with friends and family that are unwilling to listen to these facts and change their behavior to minimize their impact? It can be quite frustrating while having to deal with climate anxiety as well.

Getting people to change their habits is hard, but we need all levels of action to decarbonize our global economy. One of the most important things is to vote for politicians who promise real climate action, because the SYSTEM needs to change to get the emissions reductions we need. Politicians are much more likely to enact good climate policies if individual voters are demanding them, and individual spending and investment decisions can also influence companies who then influence politicians. Most people already support renewable energy and energy efficiency because they save people money and are cleaner than fossil alternatives.

To change people’s behavior, we’ve found that leading with the benefits of new technology (distinct from emissions reductions) can often be effective. Electric vehicles are cheaper to run, are cleaner, and are more fun to drive. Electric heat pumps generate no carbon monoxide, are quieter, are often cheaper to run, and are cheaper to install when replacing a furnace/AC combo (because heat pumps replace two pieces of equipment with one). Switching to electric cooking also improves indoor air quality, reducing the likelihood of asthma. Eating plant-based foods and reducing red meat generally improves overall health.

There are some online resources that can help. This one is great (and funny):

https://crankyuncle.com

A more technical resources is Skeptical Science, which compiles and refutes common myths about climate change and solutions.

https://skepticalscience.com

Another important resource on climate solutions is Project Drawdown:

https://www.drawdown.org

Question 2: In Mexico City we have students that spend a lot of time getting to college, sometimes 1 or 2 hours to arrive there. To promote remote work and less commuting, do you recommend online courses, in particular for engineering and sciences students? Teachers are reluctant to this change.

We are huge fans of remote work and study. As Amory Lovins says, move the electrons, leave the heavy nuclei at home! It’s vastly less emissions intensive to conduct lessons remotely. It takes different preparation for professors but it’s not clear that it takes more preparation, and the benefits are big, not just for climate, but also for quality of life. While it can be hard to fully replace the benefits of in-person instruction, hybrid systems where remote instruction is paired with limited in-person meetings can provide similar benefits, and we have increasingly better tools for replicating in-person experiences with online alternatives (which younger generations often prefer).

Question 3: You didn’t seem to mention reducing energy use. Is it wise not to assume this will happen?

Using energy more efficiently is great, but in the book we focus on what we call emissions efficiency and optimization, because energy efficiency is too narrow a frame for this problem. There is no question that we can reduce waste and eliminate unproductive uses of energy, but when energy is produced renewably, it may be just fine from an emissions perspective to use more.

In addition, the switch to electricity, which eliminates many sources of losses in combustion when electricity is generated from renewables, will result in a substantial increase in electricity use while significantly reducing fossil fuel energy use. Combustion losses are so significant in the current economy (somewhere around 20-30 % of total primary energy) that eliminating them will result in substantial energy savings for society even as electricity use goes up.

Question 4: I wish to know what actions can be taken in developing economies that depend on oil so well & are not anywhere near the expected green electrification needed to achieve a net zero carbon emissions footprint.

There is no need for developing countries to repeat our mistakes, especially since the alternatives to fossil fuels are now cheaper in societal terms virtually everywhere and cheaper in direct cost terms in many cases. There is no case for expanding fossil fuel infrastructure anywhere on the planet (with very few exceptions). Most electrification, renewable energy, and other climate solution technologies have even greater economic, health, and wellbeing benefits for developing economies that currently suffer proportionally more from existing fossil fuel and unsustainable agriculture pollution and economic distortion.  Most fossil infrastructure expansion proposals are now being driven by fossil fuel interests because they want to lock in users as much as possible before serious emissions reductions begin. Their strategy is what the futurist Alex Steffen correctly calls “predatory delay”.

Electrifying two wheeled vehicles is already happening rapidly in the developing world, as is deployment of renewables in some places. China is now by far the world’s leader in scaling up electric vehicle, and while China now leads in electric car, bus, and truck production, China started by producing hundreds of millions of electric scooters and bikes, which cost less to run than the fossil-fueled vehicles they replace. The key is to overcome the power of vested interests, who want to delay action for as long as possible (because it benefits them).

Another step many countries can take is to protect natural areas from further destruction, to maintain the ecosystem services they provide while responsibly developing industries (like tourism) that thrive when forests and other natural systems are healthy.