The only thing this narrative will accomplish is failure. Nobody will support significant sacrifice to combat climate change. Luckily they don't have to.
Of course we won't be able to capture and store 37 gigatonnes of carbon annually. That's ludicrous.
The path is straightforward: electrify everything, and make the grid green. There are only three major industries that are difficult to electrify: cement, steel and air travel. Steel & air travel can use hydrogen. For cement, you use low carbon processes to get carbon emissions down to about 10% of previous, and then store the rest. That's just a hundreds of megatonnes, and that is feasible.
Electrifying (almost) everything will cost a lot of money up front, but will save a ton of money in the long run. And renewable energy is a lot cheaper. And will provide a ton of jobs. So consumption is going to go up, not down.
Of course we won't be able to capture and store 37 gigatonnes of carbon annually. That's ludicrous.
The path is straightforward: electrify everything, and make the grid green. There are only three major industries that are difficult to electrify: cement, steel and air travel. Steel & air travel can use hydrogen. For cement, you use low carbon processes to get carbon emissions down to about 10% of previous, and then store the rest. That's just a hundreds of megatonnes, and that is feasible.
Electrifying (almost) everything will cost a lot of money up front, but will save a ton of money in the long run. And renewable energy is a lot cheaper. And will provide a ton of jobs. So consumption is going to go up, not down.
https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/electrify