The importance of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050

Since the Industrial Revolution, when societies started releasing significant amounts of greenhouse gases, human activity has been exerting a considerable influence on the climate. It is a matter of urgency that we mitigate this influence.

Climate change is no longer just a threat. It is real and has a drastic economic and social impact and negatively affects people’s quality of life. This impact may escalate dramatically if the Earth’s temperature continues to rise, leading to ice sheets melting and the inevitable rising sea level, wreaking devastation.

Consequently, there are many who argue for the need to take swift action to decarbonise the economy and society, a movement supported by European policies with structured timings and well-defined targets. João Pedro Matos Fernandes, the former Minister of the Environment and of Energy Transition, stated that making Portugal carbon neutral entails an 85% reduction of 2005’s level of greenhouse gases, and ensuring carbon sequestration in agriculture and forestry of around 13 million tons. “Since Portugal is one of the countries potentially most affected by climate change, the greatest challenges we are facing are to assure that agriculture and forestry are sustainable and resilient and to combat desertification. These are key in ensuring neutrality, territorial cohesion and protection of biodiversity”.

According to the former government minister, achieving carbon neutrality involves switching from a linear fossil fuel-based economic model to a circular carbon-neutral model. It also means a profound transformation of society as we know it. “This is a process which has its challenges, but it also brings us opportunities, and it is only by all of us contributing that we can make this transition fairly and cohesively”.

 

Full decarbonisation of the electricity generation system and of mobility

João Peças Lopes, a university professor at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP) and associate director of the Instituto de Engenharia de Sistemas e Computadores, Tecnologia e Ciência (INESC TEC) [Institute for Systems and Computer Engineering, Technology and Science], spoke at Fronteiras XXI to explain that as well as reinforcing forest and land use carbon sequestration capacity, achieving carbon neutrality in 2050 means full decarbonisation of the electricity generation system and of urban mobility, as well as profound changes to how we use energy and resources. This involves focusing on an economy which is sustained by renewable resources, uses resources efficiently and which is based on circular economy models, making the most of land and promoting territorial cohesion. João Peças Lopes believes that the energy sector – particularly electricity – “faces major urgent changes which need to be shaped by clear public policies which consequently lead to bold regulatory adjustment which will encourage the required changes”.

 

Climate change isn’t a new phenomenon

Indeed, an article produced by this institute, published in March of this year, posited that warnings about the possibility of climate change emerged in the 1950s, and as the decades passed, the “apocalyptic scenario” started to become increasingly real. “We are burning too many fossil fuels, cutting down far too many trees and producing too many greenhouse gases, which increases the planet’s temperature”. The article states that the decade of 2011-2020 was the warmest on record, with an increase of 1.1ºC above pre-industrial levels. “There’s maximum urgency and the European Union aims to avoid more catastrophic environmental changes”. To this end, the EU has put together a set of measures aimed at combating climate change on several fronts. One of them involves reducing the emission of polluting gases by limiting the use of fossil fuels, preferring clean or renewable energy sources instead.

 

Companies play an important role in energy transition

Nevertheless, the Business Council for Sustainable Development (BCSD) Portugal, a non-profit which brings together and represents over 130 companies which are actively committed to sustainability, concedes that despite political efforts to achieve this vision, “we are not yet on the right path towards carbon neutrality by 2050 and it is down to companies to take responsibility and lead the way, starting with hitting the target of a 55% cut in 1990’s level of emissions by 2030”. The Association believes that companies taking action to enact the necessary changes in all sectors and around the globe “is the only way to prevent dangerous and irreversible damage to the planet and to people”.

 

The consequences of global warming

But how urgent is it really to achieve carbon neutrality? The answer lies in the fact that of all the main human activities which cause global warming and therefore climate change, burning fossil fuels (petroleum, coal and natural gas products) to generate energy, industrial activities and transport; land use conversion; agriculture and cattle production; solid waste disposal and deforestation are the main ones which produce huge amounts of CO² and greenhouse gases.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the United Nations body responsible for producing scientific information, cited by the NGO WWF – World Wide Fund for Nature, states that there is a 90% certainty that the warming of the Earth’s temperature is man-made.

Following the Industrial Revolution, societies started producing significant amounts of greenhouse gases (GHG), particularly carbon dioxide. In this time, the original concentration of 280 ppm4 of this gas has risen to its current level of 400 ppm5, significantly ramping up the greenhouse effect. This being the case, human activity now has a significant impact on climate change. This impact has – up to now – been a negative one, and it is therefore a matter of urgency to turn it around.