IDEAS TO SHAPE THE FUTURE

The most important thing to understand about decarbonizing humanity is that it is the greatest, most decisive technological transition, as it involves shifting from a fossil-fuel civilization to one “powered” by electricity obtained from renewable sources. And renewable is meant, of course, in the strict sense of the word. Whatever the European Union says, gas and nuclear energy are not renewable – and we have no need for them whatsoever.

Why is it so difficult for us to imagine a world without fossil fuels? Quite simply, because decades of opportunistic misinformation peddled by the oil industry has led many to believe that the climate emergency was an issue that could be negotiated. Obviously, this is not the case: 100% of scientists agree that there is an emergency, and that it is not being caused by any kind of natural process or evolution, but by human intervention. Anyone who disputes this should be considered ignorant or irresponsible, and then swiftly removed from any center of decision-making on anything at all.

However, beyond the perverse machinations of an industry that decided to compromise the lives of future generations in exchange for short-term profits, we must understand that there is no going back on this transition, and not because we are extremely responsible (which is not the case). The fact is that this technology is intrinsically superior, not only because of its performance or because it is cleaner. It is better in the capitalist sense of the word because it is considerably more advantageous financially.

The two core components underpinning this technology, solar panels and batteries, are associated with huge technological economies of scale. In both cases, we are talking about technologies that bring dramatic cost reductions as more and more units are manufactured. Over the last two decades, as occurred with microchips and Moore’s Law, the manufacturing costs and prices of solar panels and batteries have fallen by over 99%, whilst making significant gains in efficiency. A solar panel purchased today is much cheaper than it was a few years ago and generates much more energy, and the same is true of batteries. In fact, the fortune of one of the richest people in the world, Elon Musk, and the astronomical valuation of his company Tesla, are based precisely on this logic.

In turn, and compounding the lies spun by the oil industry, all those who believe that these technologies are based on the use of scarce elements such as lithium and the so-called rare-earth elements, are mistaken. Lithium was thought to be scarce because we simply had not looked hard enough for it, and rare-earth elements were considered rare because we paid little attention to them. As soon as these materials began to be strategic, deposits suddenly appeared everywhere, and we now know that they are more abundant and widespread than we initially thought. We can safely say that the planet has all the materials we need for this technological transition, and that they can be extracted at a reasonable cost.

However, let us not forget that we are talking about a technological process: lithium is the core element of today’s batteries, but not necessarily of those of tomorrow. One of the most abundant elements, sodium, is emerging as a potential alternative, among many others.

The only thing that makes sense today as regards decarbonization is, firstly, to accept it as desirable and inexorable and, secondly, to put as much pressure as possible on our politicians so that they give the issue the utmost importance and maximum priority instead of simply using it to add a colorful (green) brushstroke to their programs. We are no longer talking about the future of our children or grandchildren, but about our own future. We do not have to act quickly, we have to act NOW.

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