February 27, 2022
Earlier this week, I watched an intriguing video published by TED in which climate science scholar Myles Allen suggests that the fastest and most realistic way to significantly reduce carbon emissions and slow the rate of global warming is to “decarbonize” the fossil fuel industry.
Modern knowledge and technology would allow oil and gas companies to capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, purify and compress it, and inject it back underground, where it could be stored permanently. Allen suggests a “cost-effective” pathway for companies to gradually decarbonize their fuels and achieve net-zero emissions: 10% carbon capture in 2030, 50% in 2040, and, finally, 100% in 2050. Allen stresses that these major companies must be held accountable for cooperation with this plan because they alone are capable of making it work: “The only entities in the world that have the engineering capability and the deep pockets to do this are the companies that produce the fossil fuels themselves.”
I found this perspective to be particularly interesting; I have always viewed fossil fuels as the enemy and thought the only way to truly hinder climate change would be to do away with them completely. But this method, in combination with a movement towards the use of more renewable energy resources, could provide a more realistic solution, given how crucial a role fossil fuels play in the way our society currently functions.