Is It True That We Have the Tech We Need to Accelerate Net Zero?

And if not, how can we get there?

Every few weeks, I read an article or see a post that makes a claim that is intended to help move the conversation forward on climate change, but doesn't actually help: the claim that we have all the technology we need — we just need the will to implement it.

I get that they're trying to be helpful.

The people who make these statements are trying to motivate average people to take action. They're trying to instill hope, and show that small-scale changes done at large scale, like swapping out gas furnaces for heat pumps, can make a real difference.

They're trying to encourage government policies that can drive these changes, through incentives to encourage better choices, and penalties on the technologies that are the worst offenders, where practical alternatives exist.

It's not really encouraging if it's not true.

But I think the average person knows that some of the technology isn't quite ready for the mainstream market, and most climate tech experts know we have a long way to go in areas the average consumer never thinks about.

For example, I listened to a presentation about shipping that shows there’s a huge cost differential between fossil fuel and alternative energy for powering the large freight ships that transport goods around the world. Hydrogen and biofuels are not ready to carry this load — they’re too expensive and we don’t know enough about these alternative fuel sources to scale them up yet.

As companies in so many other sectors set hard science-based targets, it won’t be sustainable for these companies to just ignore this, as they fall squarely into the Scope 3 emissions that their customers want to minimize.

This is clearly an area where we need innovation and we needed it yesterday.

If not oil / propane / methane, then what? Do they stick with fossil fuels but find ways to abate the impact with small-scale carbon capture? Is it hydrogen? Biofuels? A return to sailing days that use wind, perhaps supplemented with one of these alternatives?