Yellow Tomorrow

Climate : solutions for the future, here and now!

CLIMATE:

SOLUTIONS FOR THE FUTURE, HERE AND NOW!

More than ever, the climate emergency is our number one environmental priority. To achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, we must replace fossil fuels, which currently account for 80% of global energy consumption. Expert opinion is clear: electricity consumption will increase and, to produce it, we will have to mobilize all available low-carbon energies, especially nuclear energy.

THREE YEARS TO ACT

According to the latest IPCC report, if greenhouse gas emissions are not significantly reduced by 2030, the 1.5°C target will be out of reach and global warming will pose a serious threat to the planet. First action: stop exploiting oil, gas and coal deposits until they run out, without carbon capture technology, and replace them with low-carbon or carbon-neutral sources. Switching to less carbon-intensive energy sources should not, however, overshadow structural transformations such as soft mobility, electric vehicles, working from home, building insulation and fewer flights, which could reduce emissions by 40% to 70% by 2050. Meeting the +1.5°C target will require investments of $2.3 trillion per year between 2023 and 2052 for the electricity sector alone. Taking action is expensive, but doing nothing is even more expensive.

The extent to which we will be able to maintain our modern comfort in a world without fossil fuels will mainly depend on the nuclear share of the energy mix, as nuclear energy is the only decarbonized, concentrated and controllable energy apart from hydroelectricity.
Jean-Marc Jancovici,
President of The Shift Project

MOVING AWAY FROM FOSSIL FUELS

The European Union has set a goal of carbon neutrality by 2050. We must take action now and decarbonize power generation, which is the world’s primary source of greenhouse gas emissions due to its dependence on fossil fuels (primarily coal and natural gas). RTE recently published a report stating that electricity consumption would increase from 25% to 55% of total energy consumption by 2050. This is a gigantic paradigm shift. The challenge therefore is to move away from fossil fuels and turn to low-carbon forms of energy. Nuclear energy is one of the solutions with emissions of less than 12 g of CO2/kWh, which is equivalent to wind power, 4 times less than solar power, 40 times less than gas and 70 times less than coal. This explains why France, where more than 70% of electricity is generated by nuclear energy, is one of the “good students” of climate change.