Batteries can be part of the fight against climate change - if we do these five things

At the COP23 climate meeting, electric shuttles moved delegates across town, showcasing sustainable energy and green technology. But for farmer Zhang Tuling, green technology means dusty air and stunted crops.

It takes nine years for an electric car to be greener than a diesel car, on average.

Mr Zhang lives near a large mine in northern China that extracts a key ingredient for batteries: natural graphite. He can testify to the hidden social and environmental toll of lithium-ion batteries - the very devices that enable renewable energy storage solutions, electric vehicles and mobile power.

The battery market is anticipated to be worth $100 billion by 2025. By 2040, batteries storing solar power for businesses and households will account for 57% of the world’s energy storage capacity.

Read the World Economic Forum story - “Batteries can be part of the fight against climate change - if we do these five things.”

(Privately owned and individually operated vehicles are the issue and the human community will have little or no impact on reducing its impact of climate change, at least from a transport point of view, until were can rid ourselves of the infrastructure that ensures the sustenance of a privately owned and individually operated transport system - we need a publicly owned and operated transport system that answers our private needs - Robert McLean)

2050 climate targets: nations are playing the long game in fighting global warming

Electric cars are one of the keys
 to long-term decarbonisation.

While much of the media focus at this month’s climate meeting in Marrakech (COP22) was on US President-elect Donald Trump, there were signs that several countries have begun the long-term planning needed to avoid dangerous climate change.

During the conference, four countries – Germany, Canada, Mexico and the United States – presented their 2050 climate plans. Under Article 4 of the Paris Climate Change Agreement, all countries are asked to prepare mid-century, long-term strategies to bring greenhouse gas emissions down to low levels.

A common theme from COP22 was the emphasis on long-term strategies to help guide short-term actions. When launching the 2050 Pathways Platform, Laurence Tubiana, the outgoing French high-level climate champion, stated that if you don’t have a plan for the long term, you can’t know what a good decision is today.

Read the piece on The Conversation  by Scott Ferraro (Head of Implementation) and John Thwaites (Chair of the Monash Sustainability Institute and ClimateWorks) both from Monash University - “2050 climate targets: nations are playing the long game in fighting global warming.”