RENEWABLE CAP
1.65 TERAWATT
EUROPE
01-01-2050
00:23
RENEWABLE CAP
→ 1.67 TERAWATT
NET ZERO
→ AFFIRMATIVE
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You know this part.
Humans found a way to unleash incredible power by burning fossil fuels.
The drawback was that this releases greenhouse gas emissions which not only pollute the air but also heat up the Earth’s surface and atmosphere.
The remedy was obvious, and had been for nearly a century: lower emissions to halt the warming process.
CONTINUELet me show you the global emissions from the year 2020—the year that seven-year-old-me told my mother I wanted to be an energy researcher just like her.
At the time, humanity emitted around 50 billion tonnes of CO2 a year. Most of those emissions came from energy production.
You can play around with the interactive graph, if you want.
CONTINUEAs I grew older, I became obsessed with the energy puzzle and how to solve it. By tackling one problem—emissions from energy—I would fix the rest.
If it worked.
Let me be clear: emissions in Europe had been dropping steadily since 1990.
But in 2019, the European Union pledged to go all the way down to zero.
CONTINUEThe energy transition fascinated me right from the start. It was supposed to be the biggest revolution of our age—to keep everything the same.
Today, the economy is trucking along. We get around by bike, public transport, or car. We turn on the heating on a cold day (which is most of the time in Kirkenes). It’s just all powered differently and without emissions.
My point is: nobody can tell whether energy is clean just by looking at a power outlet. But it makes a world of difference.
Things have changed in ways you cannot imagine, no doubt. We look back to the 2020s like people in the 20s looked back at the 1990s: with nostalgia and a healthy dose of cringe.
But the most striking thing about the future is how similar it is to the past.
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