What is Decarbonization?
June 18, 2022Though the term sounds like it should be straightforward and simple, there’s quite a bit to the concept.
What is decarbonization? It’s becoming an increasingly common question as a growing number of countries around the world work to meet their climate crisis targets.
While it sounds like it is just a matter of lowering carbon emissions, there’s much more to it.
That being the case, how would we answer the question: What is decarbonization? It makes reference to all the various measures by which a government, organization or sector, for instance, reduces its carbon footprint.
This refers primarily to greenhouse gas emissions, which include not only carbon dioxide (CO2) but also methane (CH4) among others. The effort is being made in order to help reduce their impact on climate change.
Decarbonization is among the primary climate change targets and top discussion at climate conferences.
Among the primary strategies that countries, industries and companies are implementing in this regard is simply to consume less and consume better. Reduction, quality and efficiency have been the name of the game.
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To achieve this, some of the most common efforts have included the following:
- To improve energy efficiency in industrial plant operation, building heating, powering vehicles, and so on.
- To develop and implement energy sufficiency, which has to do with reducing energy consumption in the first place.
- To source greener and renewable energy. Over the short and medium term, opting for forms that reduce carbon emissions will suffice. That said, over the longer term, green hydrogen, biogas, solar, wind, tidal, hydro and other carbon-free alternatives are preferable replacements.
- To safeguard carbon sinks – that is, soil, forests and other naturally carbon capturing ecosystems – through the development of carbon capture and storage technologies.
Government officials, companies and stakeholders alike are taking aim at carbon neutrality. In order to achieve that, the gradual transition through decarbonization solutions throughout an economy are required. What has yet to be seen is whether the efforts being made will be adequate to shrink CO2 and CH4 emissions to an adequate extent within the span of a single generation, which is the amount of time most scientists predict the world has to make its changes.