This article was contributed by Salka Bani of FFC partner IASP.
Climate change has become a substantial concern for individuals, nations, states and economies. The continuous burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas, has not only increased greenhouse gasses and raised the atmospheric temperature but also on a global scale, has caused climate degradation, pollution, the deterioration of biodiversity, and the various ecosystems. Loss and in some extreme cases, the extinction of species.
To address this global issue, there have been proposals, measures and plans that individuals, public, private and non-profit entities have implemented. World governments also try to responded to this problem by adopting consistent political measures and international treaties. Nevertheless, several sources indicate that this is not sufficient.
However, as human and industrial activities develop and grow, new measures and solutions emerge. Among these solutions, there are the so-called ‘Climate Technologies’, a term used to refer to those technologies that are specifically designed for helping tackle climate change.
Climate technologies, like clean or green technologies, aim to improve human capacity to mitigate and adapt to climate change effects. For instance, carbon capture, and storage, renewable energy technologies that reduce CO2 emissions in the atmosphere. Climate technologies such as drought-resistant crops, early warning systems, and sea wall defenses. There are also the so-called ‘clean or green’ climate technologies. These kind of technologies, such as the renewable energy mechanisms (wind, solar and hydroelectric power) or systems, have existed for decades, yet, they should not be confused with climate technologies that in their practical use, are designed with advanced and refined techniques such as artificial intelligence, data science or more recently fusion mechanism techniques.
The fusion mechanism for energy creation is not only a sustainable power generation technique; the fusion technique is a promising source of clean, carbon-neutral and virtually unlimited energy to come. To date, it has not been fully implemented. It is hard to develop and requires enormous amounts of capital investment. However, Europe has been leading world research in nuclear fusion. The European Union for instance, through the ITER project. The international nuclear fusion research and engineering project. And expects to advance in the fusion field satisfying most of the world’s energy demand by the end of this decade through fusion energy supply, which is considered a cleaner and safer source of energy and a potential alternative for future generations.
Research suggests that 60% of the emissions reduction needed by 2050 will come from existing mature technology. However, for the rest of those emissions, individuals will have to rely on technologies that are still under development. Yet, encouraging the development of climate technologies through investment, research, and regulations will help more efficiently mitigate climate change. The importance of climate technologies in measuring, managing, and reducing the impact of pollution, global warming and other consequences resulting from climate change is fundamental, and the benefits provided by new technologies only materialise with their widespread adoption.
