In its 2018 report, Global Warming of 1.5 ☌, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned that we are likely to breach the 1.5 ☌ threshold by as early as 2030.įossil versus non-fossil fuel electricity generation in 20 (Source: IEA World Energy Outlook) Nuclear is low-carbon As a matter of fact, in 2017, fossil fuels produced more electricity – in relative and absolute terms – than ever before. Despite this, carbon dioxide emissions related to energy continue to rise – reaching 33.1 billion tonnes in 2018, a record high, and have increased by more than 40% since 2000.Ĭoncerted international efforts over the past 20 years have increased the amount of electricity generated by wind, solar and other renewable sources, but have failed to displace fossil fuels from the mix. This is driven by the scientific consensus that limiting the rise to 1.5 ☌ would significantly reduce the risks posed by climate change. The United Nations has identified climate change as "the defining issue of our time", with the central aim of the 2015 Paris Agreement is to keep the rise in global temperatures to well below 2 ☌ compared to pre-industrial levels, and with the aim to limit the rise to 1.5 ☌.
Nuclear energy is low-carbon and can be deployed on a large scale at the timescale required, supplying the world with clean, reliable, and affordable electricity.Ĭlimate change – an accelerating global problem This causes CO 2 to build up in the atmosphere, which rose from a concentration of around 280 parts per million (ppm) in 1750 to more than 415ppm in 2021.To limit the impacts of climate change, the world must rapidly reduce its dependency on fossil fuels to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Natural sinks of carbon are unable to keep up with this rate of change. Estimates show that by burning these fossil fuels, humans have essentially taken millions of years of carbon uptake by plants and returned it to the atmosphere in less than 300 years. However, humans have been digging up these layers and burning them at a rate the planet has never seen before, releasing vast amounts of CO 2 in a geological blink of an eye. Eventually, these layers would naturally burn or be recycled through volcanoes, returning the CO 2 to the atmosphere over many thousands (if not millions) of years. Some dead plants don't decompose and instead become layers of coal, oil and other organic-rich sediments such as peat. Animals that consume the plants also store the CO 2 for a while, before they too die and decompose. As plants grow, they take CO 2 out of the atmosphere, and when they die, it is released again. The emergence of life on our planet added a new layer to the carbon cycle. This is countered by 'weathering', a process where atmospheric CO 2 mixes with rainwater to make an acid that reacts with rocks, locking the CO 2 away. One part of the cycle involves rocks, starting with volcanoes, which belch CO 2. The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is determined by the carbon cycle - a system of 'sources' and 'sinks' of the gas that add and remove it, respectively. Human activities have been the main cause of rising carbon dioxide levels in our atmosphere since the 1800s. Carbon dioxide (CO 2) comes from both natural sources (including volcanoes, the breath of animals and plant decay) and human sources (primarily the burning of fossils fuels like coal, oil and natural gas to generate energy).
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