Wedges
Because greenhouse gas emissions are the result of so many diverse human activities, we need to simultaneously change our technologies in multiple areas, including transportation, electricity and heating, industry, land use, agriculture, and waste management. The “wedge strategy” is about bringing down emissions in each of these areas a little to bring down total emissions a lot. Climate change considered as a whole may seem monolithic and intractable, but it can be broken down into smaller, manageable problems. Each solution can make our society work better.
Efficiency measures we can take include improving fuel economy, reducing reliance on cars, building more efficient buildings, reducing production of solid waste, and improving power plant efficiency. Swapping inefficient open fires in developing countries with super-efficient stoves cuts down on black carbon. Decarbonization measures include substituting natural gas for coal, storing carbon captured in power plants, increasing solar and wind energy, and increasing biofuel production. Land management measures include reforestation, reducing deforestation, applying permaculture and no-till agricultural methods, and burying rather than burning solid waste to sequester it. People are working in all of these areas to make significant changes.
Time and costs
All of these strategies are possible, and all will save money and lives in the long run. Our real problem, then, is doing everything we need to do rapidly enough to prevent the potential positive feedback loops from kicking in and making climate change self-sustaining. Time is now a critical factor since collectively we have put off large-scale efforts for so long. Building up nuclear power has price and timing problems. Biofuels have low energy returns on energy invested. Coal with carbon capture is too pricy to be competitive. Solar and wind energy are our best alternatives, but even they have timing problems unless we speed up our transition considerably.
Yet energy transitions are protracted affairs. Climate change has the potential to overwhelm our abilities to cope because it is progressing so rapidly. We can no longer wait for better solutions, but need to quickly transition to the ones we know will work to whatever extent. We can transition yet again to better solutions later, if and when they become available.
Because greenhouse gas emissions are the result of so many diverse human activities, we need to simultaneously change our technologies in multiple areas, including transportation, electricity and heating, industry, land use, agriculture, and waste management. The “wedge strategy” is about bringing down emissions in each of these areas a little to bring down total emissions a lot. Climate change considered as a whole may seem monolithic and intractable, but it can be broken down into smaller, manageable problems. Each solution can make our society work better.
Efficiency measures we can take include improving fuel economy, reducing reliance on cars, building more efficient buildings, reducing production of solid waste, and improving power plant efficiency. Swapping inefficient open fires in developing countries with super-efficient stoves cuts down on black carbon. Decarbonization measures include substituting natural gas for coal, storing carbon captured in power plants, increasing solar and wind energy, and increasing biofuel production. Land management measures include reforestation, reducing deforestation, applying permaculture and no-till agricultural methods, and burying rather than burning solid waste to sequester it. People are working in all of these areas to make significant changes.
Time and costs
All of these strategies are possible, and all will save money and lives in the long run. Our real problem, then, is doing everything we need to do rapidly enough to prevent the potential positive feedback loops from kicking in and making climate change self-sustaining. Time is now a critical factor since collectively we have put off large-scale efforts for so long. Building up nuclear power has price and timing problems. Biofuels have low energy returns on energy invested. Coal with carbon capture is too pricy to be competitive. Solar and wind energy are our best alternatives, but even they have timing problems unless we speed up our transition considerably.
Yet energy transitions are protracted affairs. Climate change has the potential to overwhelm our abilities to cope because it is progressing so rapidly. We can no longer wait for better solutions, but need to quickly transition to the ones we know will work to whatever extent. We can transition yet again to better solutions later, if and when they become available.
