How the US could reach the New Climate Goal of the Biden

A home At the (virtual) climate summit this morning, President Joe Biden pledged the United States to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 by 2005. , fairer and cleaner for the entire planet, “he said. The most optimistic goal set by the author Paris Climate Agreement global warming would be limited to 1.5 degrees Celsius from pre-industrial levels, an effort that would require the participation of all human civilizations. “We need to get in the way now for that, “Biden added.” If we do that, we will breathe more calmly, literally and figuratively. “

What is that path like? What technologies will we need to deploy, and what kind of shocks and holes can we anticipate while the U.S. reduces carbon production? Biden did not provide details at his address, so we asked climate experts to think about how this could work.

Fix ‘National’ Broken Grid

With the rise in solar and wind power, the US is on track to decarbonize energy production: emissions from the sector have fallen 37% since 2005, although this is partly due to the switch from coal to natural gas. But an old, fragmented national grid is really hampering the green energy system.

There are two networks — the Western Interconnection and the Eastern Interconnection, which meet on the eastern and Colorado-Wyoming borders — plus the smaller independent Texas. These separate networks may share some energy within their boundaries, but they are not designed to work with each other.

This is a huge problem given the periodic nature of renewables. If the sun does not shine on the solar panels in the southwest, the region cannot generate energy. But he can’t imported a force from the midwest, believing that the wind can generate a lot of energy. And vice versa: if the wind doesn’t blow, the Midwest can’t import solar power from the Southwest. Also, when Texas froze in February, he could not import much energy tik anywhere.

The construction of high-voltage transmission lines to connect these separate networks will make the system more stable as well as greener, as renewable energy can be shared across the country. “Being able to send extra power to where it is needed is very important to enable more renewables,” says climate scientist Zeke Hausfather and director of climate and energy at the Breakthrough Institute, which advocates for action against climate and change. “We certainly won’t decarbonize the entire energy sector by 2030. But we could build a lot more wind and sun, and we could withdraw all of our coal quite easily.”

A better grid paves the way for more electric cars

When more renewable energy is transported in the country, we can better decarbonize transportation. The federal government can make large investments in electric vehicle charging stations, all connected to this greener network. The potential gains are huge: transportation accounts 28 percent greenhouse gas emissions in the US, as much as the generation of electricity itself.

And to make sure people will be able to get their batteries to their destination before the battery dies, we need a national network of charging stations. “That’s potentially one of the biggest investments, it’s in the boring things that connect places in the electricity grid,” says UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain. “And then you electrify everything, basically.”