Global warming: are there reasons to be optimistic?
On environmental issues, there are times when being pessimistic (very pessimistic) seems the most reasonable personal option.
However, there is news (data related to the environment) that optimists can use to argue that it is perfectly possible to change the direction of the most catastrophic predictions.
Let’s look at some data that allow us to see a “light on the other side of the tunnel”:
In 2019, in Spain, none other than a 69% of the CO₂ emissions were reduced (a dangerous greenhouse gas) derived from the burning of coal, and went from more than 33 million to about 10 million tons of CO₂.
In total, only this year, there was a decrease in CO₂ emissions of 33%.
And down, because also those responsible presented formal applications for the closure of coal-fired power plants in A Coruña, Almeria, León, Teruel, Asturias and Palencia.
When they are definitively closed, only three coal-fired power plants will be active in mainland Spain, in Asturias and Andalusia.
As for clean energy, the installation grew by 10%.
Almost 37% of the electricity generated was renewable and around 60% was free of CO₂ emissions.
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It would be nice to think…
Perhaps it would be nice to think that the managers and leaders of the large companies responsible for the emission of greenhouse gases (those responsible for climate change and global warming) have softened their hearts.
Or, perhaps, that they have heard the popular outcry and have finally understood that not hearing it would be like putting a band-aid on a bullet wound.
It would be nice, but impractical, because if these were the reasons for change, we would depend too much on the emotional swings of a handful of individuals.
“Cash” rules: it’s not goodness, it’s profitability
If coal mining in our country is over from January 1, 2019, it is due to the lack of profitability of the national deposits and because the European Union regulations veto state aid to this activity.
If companies give up this energy source, it is …
… because they are required by law to make large investments to meet with European environmental regulations.
… and because the prices of gas emission rights (now, if you pollute, you pay) have gone from an average of about 6 euros per ton of CO₂ in 2017 to about 25 euros per ton in 2019.
In other words: “polluting” is no longer profitable.
Encourage / Discourage
If what hurts is not the heart but the pocket, let’s continue along this path and reverse the situation, demand that our politicians show the big companies the way forward.
If we have to encourage or discourage, let’s do it, let’s show the world that it is possible, because, in the medium term, the management of clean energy can be beneficial for everyone: for those who invest in it, for those who consume it … and for the inhabitant of the most remote of the places on the planet.
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