Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
mechanisms like targets and quotas for renewable energy or taxes and
minimum prices to prop up carbon prices. Most governments have never
been more susceptible, even amenable, to pressure from their public.
Don't let the best be the enemy of the good
While many climate-change activists might like to see all fossil-fuel and
nuclear projects blocked forthwith, it would be sensible to rely more on
nuclear power and perhaps gas, the cleanest of fossil fuels, in order to
speed up reduction or elimination of coal, the dirtiest hydrocarbon.
Only the combined efforts of the nuclear and renewable energy sectors
are likely to get us to a low-carbon economy. Natural gas could, likewise,
be an essential temporary bridge to that low-carbon nirvana. Pragmatism,
rather than dogmatism is necessary.
Don't be exclusive
Remember, too, that a properly workable energy policy for the future will
be composed of a multiplicity of energy sources and efficiencies. It will be
a policy of this … and this … and this … and this ... Hopefully, this topic
will have helped to fill in some of those dots.
