The Coronavirus pandemic may be debilitating, but it does not pose an existential threat to humankind. The numbers certainly look grim (65 million infected, 1.5 million dead), but the good news is that the vaccines are coming, as we discussed in this space last week. It will take until 2024-25 for everyone on the planet to be vaccinated and herd immunity to set in. In the end, the Coronavirus may linger on just like the Flu, but its effect will be greatly diminished.
But there is a greater threat facing everyone on the planet: Climate Change. We have been burning fossil fuels at a furious pace in the last two centuries, releasing noxious gases including Carbon Dioxide, Methane, Nitrous Oxide and CFCs that have been trapped in the atmosphere leading to a Greenhouse Effect that can, over a period of time, raise surface temperatures.
In fact, 2020 has already been declared as one of the hottest years on record. The average global temperature in 2020 is set to be about 1.2 °C above the pre-industrial (1850-1900) level. There is a one in five chance of it temporarily exceeding 1.5 °C by 2024”, World Meteorological Organisation Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said in a statement.
The 1.5 degree threshold represents a milestone the world is trying not to reach: the 2015 Paris Agreement on Climate Change, backed by almost every country on Earth including Sri Lanka, calls for keeping the global temperature to 1.5°C above pre-industrial era levels. To slow temperature rises, the world needs radical action. Countries must decrease production of fossil fuels by 6 percent per year between 2020 and 2030 if the world is to avert a ‘catastrophic’ global temperature rise, according to a UN Report released on Wednesday. In a landmark speech in New York on Wednesday, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said the fight against the climate crisis was the top priority for the 21st Century.
Guterres began with a litany of the many ways in which nature is reacting, with “growing force and fury”, to humanity’s mishandling of the environment, which has seen a collapse in biodiversity, spreading deserts, and oceans reaching record temperatures. The link between Covid-19 and man-made climate change was also made plain by the UN chief, who noted that the continued encroachment of people and livestock into animal habitats, risks exposing us to more deadly diseases.
We saw new extreme temperatures on land, sea and especially in the Arctic this year. Wildfires consumed vast areas in Australia, Siberia, the US West Coast and South America, sending plumes of smoke circumnavigating the globe. We saw a record number of hurricanes in the Atlantic, including unprecedented back-to-back category 4 hurricanes in Central America in November. Flooding in parts of Africa and South East Asia led to massive population displacement and undermined food security for millions. This is not a picture of a healthy planet.
But there is a solution to the fossil fuel conundrum: Renewable Energy. The amount of sunshine that falls on the Earth on any given day is enough to provide electricity for the entire world several times over. Fossil fuels are going to run out, some of it within our lifetime and some in 200-300 years. However, solar, wind, ocean waves, geothermal energy and other such sources of power will never run out. It is thus heartening to note that the Government has prioritised the development of renewable energy generation. Sri Lanka is blessed with an abundance of almost all the energy sources mentioned above and it would be a pity if we do not make use of them to power our homes, factories and offices.
The Government will take a major stride towards its goal of achieving at least 80 percent of total power generation from renewable sources by 2030 with Tuesday’s (December 8) opening by Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa of the Mannar mega wind energy park that can generate 103.5 MW for the national grid. The US$ 135 million wind power electricity generation plant on the Mannar shore has 33 huge wind turbines for electricity generation. This is a giant leap forward, given that for the last 12 years, wind power generation has been stuck at 148 MW.
This is a step in the right direction, with energy planners forecasting that Sri Lanka would need 34,000 MW by 2050 to cater to the rising population. Sri Lanka also has an enormous potential for solar power. Going forward, no new building – residential or commercial – should be permitted if it does not include rooftop solar panels for energy generation. Furthermore, the public should be educated on the point that in some places it may be more economical to go for solar power instead of mains power. In some areas, the terrain is not conducive to the construction of power pylons.
Once the import restrictions on cars are lifted, importers should be encouraged to get down fully electric cars, which are now made by almost all manufacturers. The Government, together with the private sector, should instal a countrywide supercharger network (which can be solar powered to reduce the drain on the national grid) and some manufacturers such as Tesla are known to instal superchargers for free. All these options should be pursued.
The Government, when it does replace its vehicles, should go for electric ones. That alone will save millions of dollars in foreign exchange spent on petroleum. But the biggest saving will still be from renewable energy generation, as we rely heavily on fossil-fuel burning thermal power. Renewable energy is the future and suddenly, 2030 cannot come soon enough.