The industrial revolution that started in England some centuries ago changed the face of the mankind forever and life was suddenly much better and easier for everyone! But the industrialization also had its share of side effects as it put the environment under continuous pressure and now finally, we are seeing and feeling the repercussions of our atrocities over the nature.
McKinsey Global Institute (MGI), the economic research arm of consultants McKinsey & Co. says that there is a need for a “Carbon Revolution” which will be of the same scale of the industrial revolution but would have to be even faster! The basic idea is to increase the carbon efficiency i.e. the production of more output with minimal use of carbon laden raw material. This would effectively reduce the greenhouse gas emissions to the desired level and we would have to be achieved it within 2050 for any realistic chance of survival. MGI thinks the carbon efficiency would have to be increased at least ten folds by 2050 and compares it to the increase of labor productivity to a similar extent in the US which took 125 years! So, this basically means we have to be really fast.
The good thing is that a lot of technologies like better building insulation and cleaner coal generation are already available. The need is to apply them as much as possible. Also worth noting is that while several countries are having such expertise, several others are still using outdated and harmful techniques. So for the sake of the entire planet, sharing of technology should happen more freely among the countries. MGI also allays the fear of such measures being too expensive and maintains that it would account for 0.6 to 1.4 percent of global GDP by 2030. This after all, is a very reasonable amount to pay for our planet considering the defense budget of all the superpowers!
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Source: reuters