Climate Change and Clean Energy Management

Challenges and Growth Strategies

Henry Wang

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781351050692
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Energy Industry
• Index: Business

Climate change has never been more important than it is now, as it has become arguably the world's most urgent problem. Solving this problem is proving difficult and complex as it involves joint efforts by governments, companies, communities and innovators. The increased use of fossil fuels associated with global economic growths has led to rising GHG emissions and global warming. There are many challenges for countries that are enacting new climate and clean energy regulations in line with their Paris Agreement commitments.

Good government policies and corporate strategies are essential to support these efforts as part of the global climate change crisis. This important book addresses the latest climate change impacts and developments in potential mitigation strategies. These include fossil to clean energy transition, smart low-carbon city designs, green transportation, electric vehicles, green agriculture, carbon emission trading, carbon capture solutions plus climate finance and risk management. Potential new policies and strategies to support the successful implementation of these important strategic areas are discussed together with high-level country and business case examples.

This book is essential reading for policy makers, government employees, business executives, professionals, researchers and academics alike looking to affect change to global climate and energy policies.

1 Climate change global developments and impacts

十年树木,百年树人

shí nián shù mù, bǎi nián shù rén

Ten years for a sapling to grow into a tree and a hundred years to develop enterprises.

Good wine takes time to mature.

Executive overview

Climate change and clean energy management are receiving a lot of attention internationally. Industrialisation and rising fossil fuels consumptions globally have led to increased pollutions and carbon emissions. These have led to rising global warming and serious environmental pollutions in different countries. There are rising frequencies of climate-induced extreme weather incidents, including extreme weather, higher rainfall, rising sea levels, serious droughts and flooding, etc. These climate-induced incidents have caused serious disruptions and damages to various cities and countries globally. The various climate change impacts have raised serious challenges and risks to the continued sustainable economic growths and developments of key developed and emerging economies globally. The serious climate change impacts and challenges globally will be discussed in this chapter, with international examples.

Climate change and environment definitions

Climate change and clean energy management are key areas that have been receiving a lot of attention globally from scientists, companies and stakeholders. Literature surveys and research have highlighted that there are many different ways of defining climate change and clean energy management. These are often related to different ways of explaining what they are and their key implications globally.

Climate change is usually defined as the significant, long term changes in the global climate conditions, such as temperature or rainfalls, in different regions on earth. Climate changes have been usually caused by major, long term variations in the key global weather conditions. The changes in global and regional climate patterns have been particularly apparent and important from the mid-20th century onwards. Climate changes have also been largely attributed to the rise of global warming and global greenhouse effects (NASA, 2014).

It is important to understand the differences between weather and climate. Weather is generally referred to as short-term changes which involve various weather conditions such as rainfall, temperatures, humidity plus wind speeds and directions for a specific region or a city. Weather conditions could vary from hour to hour and day to day. The climate of a region or city is normally its weather conditions averaged over many years.

The climate of a city or region on earth will generally change more slowly. Climate changes have often led to changes in the typical weather of a region over a long period. A good example is the climate-induced changes to a region’s averaged annual rainfalls over seasons. Climate change is also the changes in the earth’s overall climate conditions. Good examples would be the changes in the earth’s average temperatures and typical precipitation patterns. The global climate is usually more than the average of the climates of specific cities or places. The systematic connectivity of the global climate systems has contributed to climate change impacts being felt globally. Climate changes have led to higher global temperatures and global warming. These have then led to more frequent climate- induced extreme weather incidents. These have resulted in significant impacts on the daily life of populations around the world.

Global warming is usually defined as the rise of global temperatures resulting from the global greenhouse effects. The global greenhouse effect is usually defined as the process whereby the major greenhouse gases (GHG), such as water vapour, carbon dioxide (CO₂) and methane, have been impacting the earth’s climate and environment. These GHGs have been generated by various human activities, such as industry, agriculture and transport. GHG emissions into the earth’s atmosphere have caused damages to the ozone layer. They have also been absorbing or re-emitting the heat being radiated from the sun and various regions on earth. These have then resulted in the trapping of various heat emissions, leading to rising global temperatures and global warming around the world (NRDC, 2016).

Global warming has resulted in slow increases in the average temperature of the earth’s atmosphere. This is due to the rising GHG concentrations in the atmosphere trapping increasing amount of the heat energy striking the earth from the sun plus heat emissions from different regions globally. These trapped heat energies were not able to be dissipated back into space and have led to a rise in global warming.

It is important to know that the earth’s atmosphere has been acting like a giant greenhouse which has been capturing the sun’s heat for many years. This has helped to create the right conditions and temperatures to support the emergence of different life forms, including humans, on earth. Without the earth’s atmospheric greenhouse effect, the planet would become very cold. Scientists have estimated that the earth’s temperature could fall by over 30 degrees Celsius, which would make many regions uninhabitable. On the other hand, rising GHG emissions starting after the Industrial Revolution have also led to serious global warming. Climate change and GHG emissions have led to the temperature of the earth going up faster now than at any other time before in history.

GHGs are major contributors to global warming and climate change. They are commonly defined as gases that have been emitted into the atmosphere which could absorb various infrared radiation and heat emissions. These GHGs are major contributors to the increased global warming. The key GHGs would normally include methane, CO₂, CFCs, etc.

Environment and sustainable development management have become important parts of climate change management by companies and cities globally. Environment and sustainability first became an integral part of the global climate change discussions at the World’s first Earth Summit in Rio in 1992. There was no universally agreed definition on what environment and sustainability really entailed. There were many different views on what these would involve. The original definition of sustainable development, which is still the most often quoted definition, had come from the UN Brundtland Commission, which stated that ‘Sustainable Development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’ (UN Brundtland Commission, 1987).

Another good definition of environment and sustainable development is that of the World Commission on Environment and Development. It is expressed as ‘A process of change in which the exploitation of resources, the direction of investments, the orientation of technological development and institutional change are all in harmony and enhance both current and future potential to meet human needs and aspirations.’

In practice, many leading international and state companies have been developing environmental and sustainable development strategies as an integral part of their corporate strategy. Global experience has shown that companies cannot just add environment and sustainable development to their list of corporate actions but they must integrate these into their core strategy. Many leading international companies have developed detailed environment and sustainable development strategies to support the sustained growth of their businesses. These strategies will normally aim to pursue simultaneously the three sustainable development pillars which include healthy environment, economic prosperity and social justice. Global experience has shown that these three sustainable development pillars should be pursued simultaneously to ensure the sustained business growth plus the well-being of current and future generations.

Climate changes and global warming overviews

Climate changes have led to large-scale, long-term changes in the earth’s weather patterns and its average temperatures. Looking back, the earth’s climate has been constantly changing over the past 4.55 billion years. Since the last ice age, which ended about 11,000 years ago, the earth’s average temperature has been relatively stable, at about 14 degrees Celsius. However, in recent years, meteorologists have measured significant rises in global temperatures. These show that the global climate has been getting warmer and the average temperatures of the earth have been increasing steadily. They have also noticed that the rates of climate changes have been progressing faster with various human activities. These have contributed to accelerating the rates of climate changes and global warming worldwide. Climate change and global warming have resulted in many regions around the world suffering climate-induced extreme climate incidents, such as hurricanes, heavy rainfall, flooding and droughts. In addition, climate changes have also created severe problems for many plant and animal species globally. Some of these species have not been able to adapt fast enough to cope with the various serious climate-induced problems and are facing serious extinction risks.

Scientists have shown that climate change has been caused by human activities, which include rising global industrialisation, growing population, manufacturing and transport activities worldwide. Scientists have been studying the long-term relationships between atmospheric GHG levels, especially CO₂ concentrations, and the rise in global temperatures. Their results showed strong correlations between rising GHG levels, especially CO₂ levels, with global warming and industrial plus human activities. They have shown that global temperature rises commenced in the late 18th century in line with the start of the Industrial Revolution. The rising industrialisation in the 20th century and the 21st century has further contributed to rising GHG emissions, which have accelerated climate change and global warming.

GHG emissions have been shown to be the key cause for global warming. GHGs have been generated by industrial and agricultural activities plus human activities. The key GHGs include water vapour, CO₂, methane, nitrous oxide and CFCs. The concentrations of water vapour globally have shown few changes over history. In addition, water vapour usually lasts only a few days in the earth’s atmosphere. On the other hand, CO₂ can persist for much longer in the earth’s atmosphere and it can take hundreds of years for its concentrations to return to pre-industrial levels. Most man-made emissions of CO₂ have been generated by the burning and combustion of various fossil fuels, such as coal and oil fuels. In addition, the cutting down of forests for wood and fuel has reduced the earth’s ability to re-absorb CO₂ by the trees. Other important GHGs such as methane and nitrous oxide have also been generated by various human and industrial activities (US EPA, 2019).

Scientists monitoring the global CO₂ levels have reported that since the start of the Industrial Revolution in 1750 CO₂ levels have risen by more than 30 per cent globally. The current concentrations of CO₂ in the earth’s atmosphere have been found to be higher than at any previous times in history for the last 800,000 years. The concentrations of another important GHG, methane, have also risen significantly, by more than 140 per cent. Methane is emitted from coal bed methane mines or natural gas reservoirs. In addition, methane is also emitted by various agricultural animals, especially cows.

Extensive climate studies have shown that rising industrialisation and increased human activities globally have resulted in the build-up of man-made GHGs in the earth’s atmosphere. These rising atmospheric GHG concentrations will then re-absorb the solar energy radiating back out to space from the earth’s surface. The trapped heat energy and radiations would then be radiated back down to earth which would then heat up both the lower atmosphere and the surfaces of the earth. These would all contribute to the rising global warming and various serious climate change effects globally (Royal Society, 2014).

If there were no greenhouse effect and all the radiation was to be emitted back into space from earth, then the earth could become much colder than it is today, with our world’s average temperature reducing by some 30 degrees Celsius. The colder environment would be hostile to many plant, insect, animal and human life forms that we know today. So it is very important that urgent joint climate change actions should be taken globally to protect the fine balances in the earth’s atmosphere. We have to actively manage the GHG emissions and the subsequent negative climate change effects globally. These would need to be controlled and optimised so as to ensure the sustainable development of the planet and continued survival of various important life forms on earth.

Climate change and global warming major impacts

Studies have shown that climate change and global warming have resulted in major long-term negative impacts and disruptions around the world. Global climate studies have also shown that global warming and climate changes worldwide have been progressing more rapidly in recent years than in the past. The rising climate change effects have led to increased global warming and serious disruptions to global weather patterns. It is important to note that the global weather and climate systems are all inter-connected and finely balanced. As a result of global warming and climate changes, extreme weather events and disasters have occurred with rising frequencies, around the world. These have included hurricanes, flooding, drought, extreme rainfalls and so on (NASA, 2014).

The key impacts of climate changes experienced globally have included global warming, melting glaciers, rising sea levels, flooding, worsening droughts, hurricanes, supercell storms, increased tornados, extreme temperatures, heavy rainfalls, extreme weathers, larger seasonal changes, retreating glaciers, Arctic ice declines, ice sheet shrinkages, etc. The various key climatic impacts will be described in detail below, with relevant international examples.

Studies of the recent changes in the earth’s temperature profiles have shown that the average temperatures of the earth’s surface have risen by around 0.89 degrees Celsius from 1901 to 2012. When scientists compared these global warming patterns throughout the history of earth, they have found that the rates of temperature rise since the start of the Industrial Revolution have been very high. A good example is that since the last ice age, which ended some 11,700 years ago, the earth’s averaged temperature has been relatively stable at about 14 degrees Celsius. However in recent years, after the start of the Industrial Revolution, measurements have shown that the world’s climate has been getting warmer and the average temperatures of the earth have been increasing steadily. They have also noticed that the rising climate change effects have been driven by industrialisation and increased human activities. These have speeded up the rates of GHG emissions and the rates of global warming.

One of the most serious climate change impacts is global warming. This is driven by the higher re-absorption and trapping of heat energies on earth by GHG emissions. This has led to rises in the global average temperatures and the heating up of oceans around the world. These have then led to more water being evaporated from the different oceans worldwide into the atmosphere, causing more clouds to form. These have then led to the generation of more climate-induced extreme weather incidents, including high energy intensive storms, hurricanes and typhoons which have been hitting different regions around the world recently. A good example is that global warming has caused air to warm up over warmer seas. These caused the warmer air to rise rapidly and quickly develop into major storms and hurricanes. In general, the warmer the sea, the warmer the surrounding air will be. These will then make the hurricanes and storms worse. Weather statistics in the USA have shown that the number and intensity of hurricanes recorded have been rising recently. Between 1975 and 1989 there were 171 severe hurricanes recorded in the USA. The frequency of severe hurricanes has increased significantly and nearly doubled between 1989 and 2005, with 269 severe hurricanes recorded in the USA. Hurricane Katrina, which hit New Orleans in 2016, was one of the most severe hurricanes in US history. Katrina caused widespread disruptions and damages. Additional examples of recent hurricanes include the tropical Hurricane Harvey, which hit Florida in August 2017, plus Hurricane Irma, which hit the Caribbean and Florida in September 2017. All these tropical hurricanes have caused widespread damages with serious negative impacts (US National Hurricane Centre, 2018).

The rising amount of water vapour in the earth’s atmosphere, resulting from global warming and climate changes, has also seriously changed the worldwide rainfall patterns. Scientists have found that significant changes in rainfall and precipitation have occurred in recent years. Their studies have found that the levels of rainfall have increased significantly in the mid-latitudes of the northern hemisphere since the beginning of the 20th century. They have also found more violent climate-induced heavy downpours have been taking place instead of steady normal showers around the world. Torrential downpours and more powerful storms have occurred in different parts of the world, especially in Asia and the Indian subcontinent. There has also been strong evidence that extreme heavy rainfall events have become more intensive and frequent, especially in America and Asia.

A good example of climate-induced rainfall was the heavy rainfall in the Indian subcontinent during August 2017, which led to serious flooding in various Indian subcontinental regions. The widespread flooding caused serious damage and disruption which affected over 40 million people in the Indian subcontinent.

Global warming and the changes in temperatures around the world have also changed the patterns of wind and air flows globally, leading to weather changes in different regions. A good example is Africa, where these have led to prolonged heatwaves becoming more common, which in turn has led to serious droughts in various African countries. Another good climate-induced example is that the Sahara Desert has been expanding more quickly in recent years due to the heatwaves and droughts caused by climate changes. A serious drought in Ethiopia has become one of the worst droughts globally, affecting millions of people and generating millions of climate refugees in Africa.

At the other extreme, climate changes have resulted in record cold temperatures and winter storms in many regions. Global warming has led to shifts in cold upper air currents as well as hot dry ones. Increasingly, cities that were once in the temperate zone, with regular rainfall are becoming hotter and drier. The string of record high temperatures in recent years and the higher occurrence of droughts in the past decade have become the norm, due to climate change.

Climate changes have also resulted in significant changes in seasons across the world in different countries. A good example is that the spring seasons in UK have been starting earlier and the autumn seasons have been starting later. There have also been changes in seasons in various regions...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Author’s notes
• About the author
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• 1 Climate change global developments and impacts
• 2 Climate change global outlooks and implications
• 3 Climate change global policies management
• 4 Climate change sustainable transport management
• 5 Climate change electric vehicle growth management
• 6 Climate change green agriculture growth management
• 7 Carbon emissions trading systems management
• 8 Carbon capture and storage and utilisation innovation management
• 9 Climate finance and climate risk management
• Bibliography
• Glossary
• Index