Our climate is changing. Extreme weather events will become the new standard, temperatures are rising around the globe. Only a few degrees more already means immense consequences for ecosystems, economic sectors and human health across Europe and worldwide. The WWF analyzed that climate change causes around half of all animal and plant species, in the world’s most important natural regions, to be threatened in the medium term.
The European Environmental Agency gets to the heart of the matter: ‘Essential for the generation of industrial, commercial and social wealth, energy also provides personal comfort and mobility. But its production and consumption place considerable pressures on the environment: greenhouse gas and air pollutant emissions, land use, waste generation and oil spills. These pressures contribute to climate change, damage natural ecosystems and the man-made environment, and have adverse effects on human health.’
Much of the observed and predicted changes can be directly linked to human greenhouse gas emissions. Greenhouse gases exert a significant influence on global warming. An actively promoted development of renewable energy is one of the main means to curb this dramatic change.
Green electricity only works together
‘The negative impacts of climate change can only be limited by the reduction of emissions – this has to happen already now and in all industries. Sector coupling is the key word: The term is used to describe the increasing interconnection between the energy sectors of electricity, heat and mobility. The electricity industry is responsible for only about 40 percent of CO2 emissions. Traffic and the heat sector each contribute a further substantial share. If global warming is to be slowed down, these sectors must also contribute to the needed CO2 emissions reduction,’ explains Holger Gassner, Head of Renewables Strategy & Technology and Regulatory Affairs at innogy SE.
The EU has committed to reducing emissions of climate-damaging greenhouse gases by at least 40% by 2030. ‘To reach this goal all sectors and countries must work together. Flows of electricity do not stop at country borders, nor does climate change. The basic need for electricity as well as future well-being of society thus require cross-border approaches of collaboration. Neither one country nor one company or city can fight climate change alone,’ adds Holger.
