Question

What is an appropriate response to the problem of climate change? In answering this question, you will need to consider what sorts of actions you think are appropriate for government, business, and individuals to take. Are government and industry, for example, doing enough to address this problem? If not, provide some examples of additional measures that you think are necessary. How important do you think economic considerations are? What sort of lifestyle changes, if any, are you prepared to make? Would you consider giving up your SUV for a hybrid car? Would you be prepared to give up your car? Do you agree with British Columbia’s revenue-neutral carbon tax? Explain your position.

Answer 1

Ans. Climate change is the most crucial environmental concern at present. It is affecting the environment and its various compartments. The weathers are shifting, the earth is experiencing extreme temperature changes, global average temperature is increasing, intensity and frequency of tropical cyclones are increasing, ice and glaciers are melting. In a nutshell we are progressing towards the tipping point. Recently scientists have warned that we cannot let further increase in temperature else the change will remain permanent. The temperature increase has to be kept below 2oC or else the change is going to be irreversible and there will be point of no return. Hence various measures should be adopted in order to offset the climate change.

The steps to be taken are at different levels - individual, commercially, Government levels, and international levels. As individuals it is our prime responsibility to see to it that we save as much energy as we can. This could be accomplished by saving electricity, saving water, using organic products, planting trees and building community gardens. Taking up public transportations wherever possible, is better than using one's own private car. Indeed giving up on SUV is no longer an option, it has to be done and be replaced with hybrid cars. This is because the purpose is the same - to reach one's destination and if the chosen media is eco-friendly, then it is way better to boast of it, rather than boasting about a highly expensive car. It will also encourage others to give up on their individual expensive cars using fossil fuels and thus changing to hybrid or electric cars or hydrogen fuel cell containing vehicles. Shifting to renewable energy at home like planting solar heating equipments - both active and passive will help not only in saving energy but will also help reduce electricity bill significantly. A mindset is also required to adapt these changes. We should not wait for people to come and encourage us to reduce our carbon footprints, rather each one of us should take the first step.

Businesses should invest more on alternative energy sources like renewable sources and stop investing on fossil fuel based products. This will help make a faster and successful energy transition. Government could make it a compulsion to adopt different technologies to stop the further release of green house gases like using different CO2-scrubbers, absorbers, mineral fixation of carbon chemically. Carbon dioxide sequestration is one of the most promising technologies in offsetting climate imbalance. It helps in storing the gas within different formations like deep un-mineable coal seams, deep saline aquifers, depleted oil and gas reservoirs and lot more. These require enough funding which could be provided by different industries and the Government. Most of the states have developed this technology like US, Canada, UAE, Germany, Japan, China, Norway, however most are lacking in. Not every country is interested in investing in such projects and is still continuing their products using the fossil fuels. So investments and incentives should be provided to the rest of the states or countries so that they can also opt for carbon dioxide sequestration. Till 2017, the carbon sequestration projects globally have stored about 25 million tons of carbon; surprisingly the first sequestration project started in the year 1996 in Norway by the Statoil group. The project is called the Sleipner project and this project solely has a calculated capacity of storing 600 million tons of carbon dioxide. So this technology is amenable.

With respect to energy transition, the renewable energy shares are increasing fast. Every country is increasing its renewable energy source of electricity generation. There has been more than 20 % increase in energy production through renewable resources in 2018. The most promising future is that of solar, hydropower and wind power. If the rate of growth continues at the current pace it is estimated that by 2040, the market will be owned by the renewable energy by about 45 %.

In the year 2008, the British Columbia implemented an equal carbon tax for carbon emitters or those who use fossil fuels. This is why it is also known as carbon neutral tax. It is a good step taken with two roles - one is net decrease in carbon emission and the other is increase economic condition. So people will try to avoid giving extra money as tax and thus will restrict their fossil fuel use and thus in the year 2016, there was a reduction in carbon emissions by 9.9 % and increase in gross domestic product by about 19 %. With time the carbon tax is increasing. In 2019 the tax per ton of carbon dioxide rose from 35$ to 40 $. At the same time there has been no increase in general taxes in the region, in fact it is quite low. So this revenue system is efficient in maintaining the carbon emissions within control.