The planet will still be able to take the pressure of global warming up to 2050 and thereby keep the rise in global temperature below two degrees centigrade, conclude engineers from across the globe.
We know which technologies to use to achieve the task and many of these are already on the market.
Over the course of a whole year, engineering organizations from 12 different countries (1.3 million engineers in total) have worked to draft national climate plans and other initiatives that can reduce the emission of greenhouse gasses and the message from the Chairman of the Danish Society of Engineers, Lars Bytoft, is clear:
“It is possible to bring about dramatic reductions in the emission of greenhouse gasses using technologies that are already known. However, this requires the setting of binding goals and for all of the countries of the world to develop concrete plans before 2012 for how they will reduce the emission of greenhouse gasses up to 2050,” he says.
The organisations behind the climate project, ‘Future Climate – Engineering Solutions’, has been gathered in Copenhagen the last two days to present a global engineering prelude to the COP15 meeting in Copenhagen later in the year.
One of the main points in the report from the Future Climate project is that a large proportion of the reductions could be reaped through energy savings.
The majority of the organisations therefore expect to be able to reduce the emission of greenhouse gasses at a national level by up to 50 percent solely through energy efficiency improvements within areas such as manufacturing industry, the construction industry and transport.
“Energy efficiency improvements is quite simply the area where we can get the most value for money. Energy savings should therefore be included as a central element of every effort to reduce the emission of greenhouse gasses,” says the Chairman of the Danish Society of Engineers, Lars Bytoft.
Huge challenges on transport
One of the areas in which the participant countries have identified the greatest number of common challenges is the area of transport.
It is here that the report points to the unrivalled environmental advantages of electric cars and also to the fact that a commercial breakthrough is conditional upon continued development and improvement of aspects including battery capacity.
The report also stresses a general need to enhance global collaboration on technological innovations.
On the basis of the experiences gained from the project, the organisations have summarised a series of recommendations for a future global climate agreement.
These include establishing unity regarding binding goals that will ensure that the emission of greenhouse gasses peaks as quickly as possible and before 2020.
“With the Future Climate project we have shown that technological solutions are not the barrier to checking global warming. We therefore hope that the results from the project will act as an inspiration for ambitious and brave decisions when the politicians attend the climate meeting in Copenhagen in December", says Lars Bytoft.
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Download the national plans