The 27th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) will commence this coming Sunday in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. Leaders and senior government functionaries from across the globe will gather to discuss and debate climate change targets and their financing, implementation and other such matters over the next two weeks. Hopefully, the talks will take into account some of the major lessons that have come to the fore and provide a reality check for climate policymakers.
Coal energy cannot be wished away just yet: Last year, many developed nations took a hard stance against thermal power generation. India and China were criticised for moderating the phrase used in the final declaration from “phase out coal” to “phase down coal”.
Since then, almost all developed countries have figured out that coal might be polluting, but in times of crisis, it is more reliable than some of the cleaner options. The Russia-Ukraine war, in particular, has forced European countries, often considered to be at the forefront of climate change action, to go back to coal as they prioritise energy security over fuel sources.
Germany, often considered the poster boy of clean energy adoption, was aggressively planning to decommission its thermal power plants before the Russia-Ukraine war. In the middle of the year, uncertain about the reliability of its gas supplies, it restarted mothballed coal plants. The energy firm RWE is dismantling a small wind farm to expand its lignite mines for thermal plants. Germany is still talking about phasing out coal by 2030, but that depends on gas supplies to western Europe going back
to normal.
Clean energy generation is running far ahead of storage: Solar and wind capacities worldwide are increasing exponentially. But green energy generation is unreliable—one reason is that in most parts of the world, they are paired with power plants using gas as fuel. Giant battery storage needed to make green energy a more practical option has lagged behind renewable generation capacities.
Battery storage is currently over-reliant on Lithium-Ion batteries, and the costs of big batteries that can power a city or even a small town for several weeks during bad weather is not practical right now. No doubt the storage technology will catch up—breakthroughs in battery chemistry are reported almost daily. But moving beyond laboratory demonstrations to large-scale practical solutions that are also cost-effective is still some time away. And that is why transitioning from hydrocarbon fuels to entirely renewable and clean energy will take time.
Even clean energy has a dirty footprint: China is the largest supplier of solar panels. While it is also adopting renewables, much of its power is also powered by dirty coal. Many factories churning out
solar panels get their power from coal-fired plants. More importantly, the current battery technologies have raised uncomfortable questions about their environmental footprint.
Most current batteries are based on Li chemistries and require other minerals such as cobalt. The world’s largest proven lithium supplies are concentrated in the “Lithium Triangle” area. It is in the Andes region that spans the borders of Chile, Bolivia and Argentina. It is estimated that 58% of the world’s known lithium resources are in this area. Apart from that, Australia is a big producer but as the demand for batteries is shooting up, so is the mining in the lithium triangle. The bulk of the world’s cobalt deposits is in the Democratic Republic of Congo. China and the western powers are jostling for lithium and cobalt mines.
But as lithium and cobalt extraction goes up, it is also becoming apparent that the underdeveloped and developing countries with rich mines are paying the price for the adoption of EVs by developed countries. Mining is never a clean activity, and it is taking its toll on the environment of poor countries with rich deposits.
These minerals are available in rich countries as well. The US has significant lithium reserves, but its environmental regulations make it difficult to extract these easily and cheaply. Meanwhile, lithium-processing capacities are largely concentrated in China. Lithium processing again has a significant environmental footprint. Western countries have turned a blind eye to the environmental damage caused by mining and lithium processing because these are not within their borders. But climate change is a global problem, and you cannot contain its impact within artificial geographical borders.
The oceans are not indestructible: There are two parts to the climate battle. The first, which gets a fair amount of attention, involves taking steps to reduce emissions—by using renewable and clean
energy sources.
The other part of the equation is about how to deal with the gases being emitted into the atmosphere. Carbon sinks that can absorb carbon dioxide and other gases leading to global warming are the solution here. The biggest carbon sinks are still found naturally—in forests and oceans.
While the depletion of forest cover gets quite a lot of attention in the media and among policymakers, oceans have been ignored till recently. That is because oceans seemed to have a limitless capacity to absorb emissions without noticeable change. But as scientists have started measuring and tracking ocean damage better, concerns about pH changes and the harm done to marine creatures are coming to the fore. From genetic damage to behaviour changes in fishes, a lot is being traced back to the damage the oceans are suffering because of their use as carbon sinks.
There are many things, of course, that COP27 can discuss and debate. But these are four important issues they will need to understand and consider while planning for a cleaner Earth.
Prosenjit Datta
Former editor, commentator on economic issues
(datta.prosenjit@gmail.com)