How can the world cut its greenhouse gas emissions in time to avert the most catastrophic impacts of global climate change? It won’t be easy, but there are reasons to be optimistic that the problems can still be solved if the right kind of significant actions are taken within the next few years, according to panelists at the latest MIT symposium on climate change.
The symposium, the fourth in a series of six this academic year, was titled “Economy-wide deep decarbonization: Beyond electricity.” Symposium co-chair Ernest Moniz explained in his introductory remarks that while most efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions tend to focus on electricity generation, which produces 28 percent of the total emissions, “72 percent of the emissions we need to address are outside the electricity sector.” These sectors include transportation, which produces 29 percent; industry, which accounts for 22 percent; commercial and residential buildings, at 12 percent; and agriculture, at 9...
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