Is green technology causing climate change?

Simon wonders why, even after a drop in global emissions during the COVID crisis, we are seeing the main indicators for climate change continue to move in the wrong direction. Is green technology not all it’s cracked up to be? James Tytko asked Shaun Fitzgerald, Director of the Centre for Climate Repair at the University of Cambridge, for answers…

Shaun — Since the emergence from lockdown, we’re back on the previous trend. And that trend was already showing signs of increasing emissions year on year. But the pandemic was interesting in that it showed not just what dip could arise as a result of society locking down, but in a way, how small the dip was despite such a big lockdown. And therefore, it’s not a case of the answer being: we’ve got to shut down the whole of global society to cure climate change — because it actually won’t make that much of a difference. No, the bigger issues are about fundamental infrastructure and the way that we make energy available to society. These are the big issues that we need to grapple with if we’re going to make a dent in climate change.

James — And yet, despite exponential growth in green technologies recently — solar power, electric vehicles — we’re still seeing temperatures climb higher and higher, resulting in, for example, the deadly heatwaves engulfing much of Western Europe at the moment.

Shaun — Yes, we are seeing an explosion of solar and wind as part of energy provision. But at the same time, the world in general is needing more energy — because the population is increasing a little bit, but also standards of living are going up across the world. And energy is one of those key hallmarks of improved standards of living. We need to work even faster, even harder, at getting green technologies developed — especially energy sources to displace and reduce the amount of fossil fuels being burned globally.