WE CAN BID ADIEU TO FOSSIL FUELS WITHIN A DECADE

[HuckleB]

http://conservationmagazine.org/2016/04/can-bid-adieu-fossil-fuels-within-decade/

"A new study shows that the world could wean itself off of fossil fuels within the next ten years. The right mix of measures would have to be put in place for that to happen, University of Sussex researchers say, but it should be possible if government leaders commit to it.

Last year, leaders of G7 industrial nations reached an agreement to phase out fossil fuels by 2100. But it could be done in a fraction of the time with a collaborative, interdisciplinary, multi-scalar effort, says Benjamin Sovacool, Director of the Sussex Energy Group at the University of Sussex.

In a study published in the journal Energy Research & Social Science, Sovacool analyzed immense energy transitions in the past and compared them with successful energy revolutions that have occurred in recent modern history.

He states that the shift from wood to coal in Europe took between 96 and 160 years. Mainstream adoption of electricity, meanwhile, took 47 to 69 years.

.."

--------------------------------


I am more cynical about this than the fact that I posted it might indicate. Still, discussion is worthy.

[JimDandy]

1. Well if more countries do what the Netherlands is doing: banning all non-electric cars

from their roads by 2025, that goal would be more doable sooner

[HuckleB]

2. That's not so easy, for say, Mongolia.

Fiscal and distance wise.

[bluedigger]

3. It's a nice fantasy.

2100 seems a little more realistic.

[anigbrowl]

4. A problem with this argument...

He states that the shift from wood to coal in Europe took between 96 and 160 years. Mainstream adoption of electricity, meanwhile, took 47 to 69 years.

...is that the increased utility of coal vs wood or electricity vs burning your own fuel is very very obvious to the consumer, and the consumer is the driver of market forces. Now the benefits of clean power over fossil fuels are great, but that utility is not as obvious to the consumer because they're just getting the same old electricity and it's not so easy for the consumer to measure the (hopefully) lower CO2 content of the air and resultant impact on the greenhouse effect. So even though consumers may know about that from the media or first principles, and even though some consumers care deeply about that issue, it just doesn't have the same sort of demand effect because the impact on quality of life is distant and diffuse rather than immediate and personal, compared to the historical examples.