This video is sponsored by dashlane
Climate change is scary.
It's possibly the biggest threat civilization has ever faced to very briefly summarize human activity has increased carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere
Increases in CO2 must have a warming effect on the surface because, physics.
the earth is warmed by approximately one degree on average since the eighteenth century
and our best models of the Earth's system can really reproduce this warming if human influence on the climate is included
So humans have definitely changed the global climate for the warmer by emitting CO2 and other gases like methane and we're
continuing to emit those gases every year the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns that if we don't limit further emissions,
then we will see further warming but also
Rising sea levels more extreme hot weather events and increases in the frequency of both droughts and heavy precipitation
This will result in society-wide
changes and most probably
extensive conflict over migration and resources
If you're anything like me you're used to hearing about climate change in this tone
Described in much the same way as winter in Game of Thrones winter is coming. It's coming
There's nothing we can do to stop it
It's definitely coming and when it gets here, it's going to be really put -owp nevermind too late
Solutions to climate change are rarely discussed because well
It's a very complex problem everyone on earth contributes to the greenhouse gas emissions which fuel climate change though not equally.
These contributions take place on an individual level through our daily activities
But take place through networks of actors: the companies we choose to do business with,
the banks we trust with our money, the governments that we choose to elect. Our choices, in this regard, in the
larger scale of the economy and political landscape have truly enormous repercussions.
When people write articles on what we can do to mitigate climate change
they very much focus on the individual actions we take, for example:
not eating meat or using public transport and these are things we should be doing
I'm not arguing against individual action to combat climate change, but consider that we are endpoint users in a vast network
which we have ultimate collective control over; and a far more effective way of reducing
our greenhouse gas emissions and preventing climate catastrophe is to change the workings of that network from the top-down
Over the course of this video,
I'm going to make three recommendations of what we, as voters and activists, can do to accomplish just that.
To begin with consider a breakdown of where greenhouse gas emissions come from by sector.
While agriculture, industry, and forestry all make modest contributions,
the overwhelming majority of humanity's greenhouse gas emissions come from energy use
Note that that's different from electricity generation. Energy use encompasses lots of things including
Electricity generation, but also heating, cooling and cooking, transportation,
manufacturing, and other miscellaneous uses of energy.
If we're to beat climate change then, we need to revolutionize how we use energy in a general sense:
transitioning away from fossil fuels like coal and gas to renewable sources such as wind solar geothermal
and hydropower. The role of nuclear power is a...
...topic for a future video. Accomplishing a society-wide energy transformation is a daunting task
but the world's energy experts have been thinking about this for a long time. The International nonprofit, REN21,
Based at the UN Environment Programme has produced a document every year since 2005 called the global status report
The GSR is written with contributions from energy experts politicians and researchers from around the world
Assessing where we're at with the renewable energy transition
The full report is available for anyone to read link in the description. Having read it,
I want to make three arguments for what we should be focusing on to
Accelerate the energy transition bring greenhouse gas emissions down and beat climate change.
Firstly, targets need to be set by politicians for renewables uptake beyond electricity generation
We're all familiar with the drive to replace coal-fired power stations with wind turbines, nuclear, and solar power plants
Of the 197 countries in the world, 146 have targets for the use of renewable technology to generate electricity
and these targets are working
In 2017, 26.5% of energy used as electricity came from renewable sources
However, as we saw earlier energy use means much more than just electrical power. In particular,
It means transport and heating and the uptake of modern renewables in these sectors is much lower:
10.3% for heating and just 0.3% for transport. The likely reason? A lack of targets.
Only 48 countries have renewable energy targets for heating and cooking and only 42 for transport.
In order for the energy transition to happen across all sectors,
Governments must commit to targets for renewable energy use in heating and in transportation
So what can you do? Ask your local representative about this
and vote for a political party that pledges to implement these targets
Secondly, and I'm going to say this appropriately loudly,
(wait for it)
PHASE OUT FOSSIL FUEL SUBSIDIES
There is a common perception that renewable energy is fine and dandy in principle,
But just too expensive to make economic sense in reality.
This is completely wrong.
In this terribly formatted figure from the International Renewable Energy Agency,
the cost per kilowatt hour of fossil fuel power generation is compared to that of various renewable power sources.
In 2010 and 2017, almost all of the technologies shown are either cost competitive or
substantially cheaper per kilowatt hour than traditional fossil fuels and getting cheaper.
People assume that renewables are only used because of subsidies
and incentives given to renewable power suppliers
and this can't be further from the truth.
Fossil fuels are subsidized significantly more than renewables.
In 2016, 370 billion dollars were given in subsidies for fossil fuel use and only
140 billion given to renewables. If you factor in other externalities like
health and pollution, then subsidies given to fossil fuels are an order of magnitude greater
So despite renewables being increasingly the lowest cost option (In fact in some cases last year,
it was cheaper to build new renewables generation than to maintain old fossil fuel capacity)
money is still given to subsidize and develop fossil fuel use by governments
The G20 has committed to phasing out "inefficient fossil fuel subsidies"
but hasn't defined "inefficient" or done anything on the subject since saying so in... 2009
It is imperative that our Governments commits to rapidly phasing out fossil fuel subsidies
stopping distortion of the power market and allowing the energy transition to take place
Again, write to your local representative about this
and vote for a political party that pledges to phase out these subsidies.
Lastly, more money needs to be invested in renewable energy, in particular, in developing countries
It's estimated by the International Energy Agency that to keep global temperature rise below 2 degrees Celsius,
12 trillion dollars must be invested in renewable power supplier between now and 2014.
That translates to about five hundred billion dollars a year, or roughly
twice what the world is currently investing.
At the moment, we're not going to hit the targets set by the Paris agreements.
We need to be more ambitious
Interestingly, while most investment in renewable energy in 2017 came from
developed countries, the top three being: China, the USA, and Japan,
the highest spend per capita was in developing countries.
It's estimated that 90% of people currently with our electricity access will gain this access through renewables
mostly off-grid distributed renewables in developing countries. In this process will take approximately
50 billion dollars a year in private and public funds, and is essential to fund
to continue development of these countries without committing to massive further emissions. As such,
Projects in developing countries using renewable energy generation must be prioritized
by development banks and by foreign aid
And absolutely prioritized over projects using fossil fuels. Further investment in developed countries,
which fell more than 18% in 2017 must continue. In particular, in the flexibility of energy infrastructure.
Man, I really hope there's at least one Energy Minister that ends up watching this.
Otherwise, that line was pointless
So if you live in a developing country, vote for a political party which prioritizes
investment in economically viable renewable energy over fossil fuels.
Well, if you're lucky enough to have a say in where charity or development money goes,
Prioritize investment in renewable energy access in the developing world.
There are myriad aspects to the energy transition.
I didn't even touch on the issue of cooking, or biofuels, or carbon taxes for example.
This video could never hold all the answers to our climate problems
Hell if it did, I will be holding a Nobel Peace Prize in my hands right now
What I hope it's demonstrated is that there are specific meaningful actions you can take
beyond the individual level to combat climate change
Make your voice heard with your vote,
Write to your local representative about these issues
Share this video so others can learn from it too, and spread the word about these three points
Which we should all be demanding from our governments
Anthropogenic climate change is an issue that has taken a world to create and we'll take a world to unmake
We've already damaged the planet in ways that will take thousands of years to repair
but, through collective action, we can turn the tide
Limit our greenhouse gas emissions and limit the further damage we do to the world of our children.
The best time for action was 20 years ago
the second best time... is now
To do a smooth segue from such a serious topic into this video sponsor would be inappropriate
So I'm just gonna say it as it is
this video was sponsored by dashlane. dashlane is a tool which generates securely stores and
Automatically fills out online forms with strong passwords
If you're anything like me you probably use a small number of relatively weak passwords across a lot of websites and
Have to reset them all the time because you keep forgetting which one you used where dashlane gets around this by creating
Strong passwords and remembering them for you and not only are the passwords better remembered than they are in your brain.
They're safer than they are in your brain. Everything gets encrypted by dashlane's patented security architecture
So only you can access what your passwords are it syncs your passwords and online logins across multiple devices
Works on Mac, Windows, iOS, and Android, and is trusted by more than 10 million users worldwide
I switched over to dashlane and I doubt I'll ever switch back to remembering all my passwords manually
It just makes the internet safer quicker and easier. You can try a 30-day free trial on one device
Go to dashlane.com/simonclark and if you'd like to upgrade to premium then the first
200 people to use the promo code "simonclark" will get 10% off. Thank you for watching this video
It's been a very important one to me. So I've taken my time to get this one right
Please do share it widely. As this message is the most important message we could be spreading right now
Please see the description for links and references and footnotes and thank you again for watching. I'll see you in the next one