Channel: Down To Earth

Category: Science & Technology

Tags: earth day special131 trillionbusiness climate changehealth mobilitygreen economycivil service preparationsadaptation vs mitigationgovernment investmentclimate change investment strategyias coachingsustainable developmentenvironmentcseearth day 2022down to earthclimate change mitigationclimate change adaptationscienceupsccentre for science and environmentclimate change

Description: This ‘Earth Day’ the spotlight is on the ROI of investing in the Earth. However, the investment is a considerable amount of money. 131 trillion dollars by 2050, according to International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). This will be majorly spent on clean energy with emphasis on scaling up hydrogen production, expanding renewable power capacity to more than 10-fold, accompanied by a 30-fold increase in the electrification of transport. But for all of this to happen, industries and governments must get on board. For years, we’ve been carefully sorting our recyclables and inventing new ways of harnessing energy through renewables, while atmospheric carbon levels continue to rise. Individual action is necessary to stop climate change but there is a limit to its impacts. Governments and businesses need to scale this up further but unfortunately, they resist sustainability. Here are a few reasons why? Election cycles make long-term planning difficult, global political thinking is shifting to the right, economic uncertainty, and most recently, the COVID pandemic. There is a common thread linking all these reasons. We focus more on what we have to lose than on what we might gain. So, if on one side 37,000 jobs will disappear with the American coal industry, then at the same time solar power is also employing 250,000 workers and is growing 5 times faster than the overall job growth rate. In the U.S. A worldwide commitment to sustainability could revolutionize the global economy just as the space race spurred the rapid transition from an analog to a digital world in the 20th century, and industrialization introduced the modern era in the 19th. Investments in climate action would go far to build a sustainable economy. According to October 2019 data from the World Bank, the world will need to make significant investments in infrastructure over the next 15 years –around US$90 trillion by 2030. But it can recoup those investments. Transitioning to a green economy, it found, can unlock new economic opportunities and jobs. An investment of US$1, on average, yields US$4 in benefits. And the New Climate Economy Report, issued in 2018, found that bold climate action could yield a direct economic gain of US$26 trillion through 2030 compared with business-as-usual. The 1st step in the investment process is phasing out of fossil fuels. Already, coal mines are being closed as the price of coal becomes increasingly more expensive compared with renewable energy sources. Replacing the costliest coal with solar and wind would cut annual costs by up to US$23 billion per year and yield a stimulus worth US$940 billion, or around 1 percent of global gross domestic product. The Global Commission on Adaptation estimated that investing US$1.8 trillion from 2020 to 2030 could generate US$7.1 trillion in total net benefits in 5 areas: Early warning systems Climate-resilient infrastructure Improved dryland agriculture crop production Global mangrove protection More resilient water resources. However, finance for adaptation continues to make up only a small percentage of climate finance overall, about 20 percent. The Climate Policy Initiative noted in its 2019 Climate Finance Landscape report that the vast majority of the finance that is tracked continues to flow toward activities for mitigation. Down to Earth is Science and Environment fortnightly published by the Society for Environmental Communication, New Delhi. We publish news and analysis on issues that deal with sustainable development, which we scan through the eyes of science and environment.