What are the sustainable interventions? The Ref research center in Milan has just closed a research (position paper number 178) on the decarbonizzazione total outlined by the International Energy Agency.
According to the analysts of the Ref, if you study the forecasts of the Parisian agency it can be understood that 27% of decarbonization will come from the production of electricity from renewable sources, 20% from energy efficiency, another 20% from the electrification of uses. final (for example, heating and cooking with electricity instead of gas), 15% from the capture of CO2 emissions, 6% from green and blue hydrogen, 12% from sustainable bioenergy.
The Environmental Defense Fund, an international non-governmental organization that is carefully studying the energy transition, has decided to analyze the phenomenon of fugitive dispersions of methane, which has a heating capacity of the climate tens of times greater than carbon dioxide .
Through its subsidiary MethaneSat, the EDF has signed an agreement with the US aerospace company SpaceX of the volcanic Elon Musk to launch in orbit in a year and a half a satellite capable of discovering the points where methane escapes from gas pipelines, flanges, industrial gaskets, poorly managed fields, storage, valves. Another theme, presented by Edf on the occasion of a webinar organized by the Friends of the Earth (an ecological association attentive to the issue of fugitive methane emissions), is that of market instruments capable of reducing methane emissions from the gas supply chain and Julius Ecke presented a study by Enervis on the potential effects and benefits of imposing a price for upstream methane emissions, both internally produced and imported from supplier countries. According to the report, charging a price for upstream methane emissions associated with natural gas entering the EU could cut those emissions by up to 80%.
A taxonomy against the braggart
Studies by Cerved, Ref, Edf, Amici della Terra say that one must be able to read well which investments help the environment and which ones do not. Does capturing CO2, nuclear energy that does not emit carbon dioxide, and replacing inefficient and polluting coal with the more efficient and less polluting methane bring about an improvement in the environment or an economic and social benefit to the community? Certainly. But it depends on the conditions in which this happens; it depends on the quality of the pipes that carry methane without dispersing it in the air, on the way in which biomass is used, on the nuclear technology adopted, on the management of renewable sources and so on.
An example for everyone: cases of demolition of wooded areas to install expanses of photovoltaic panels have been reported for some time, cases in which the environmental benefit is difficult to prove.
For this reason Europe is working on the “taxonomy“, That is the criteria to be able to distinguish which investments are included in the European projects to exit the health and economic crisis.
Since markets and large financial flows require certification of the sustainability of the investments they are targeting, each project boasts great environmental virtues. But are they true virtues or are they boastfulness? When methane, nuclear, renewables, bioenergy, hydrogen bring an environmental benefit, when instead they do not bring sustainable benefits but at least they do not cause harm, and when instead they are harm to the environment or harm to human society? These are the questions of the green debate in the coming years.