Which will have the most impact?

Tap a card below to make your choice.
Tap ‘Read more’ to explore a solution.

Try another one

Energy Storage (Utilities)

Electricity Generation

Energy storage — daily, multiday, and longer-term or seasonal — is vital to reduce emissions from polluting “peaker” plants and accommodate the shift to variable renewables.

Read more

Rank and results by 2050 #77

Energy Storage (Utilities)

What do these numbers mean?

TOTAL CO2-EQ REDUCTION (GT)

Total CO2-equivalent reduction in atmospheric greenhouse gases by 2050 (gigatons)

NET COST (billions US $)

Net cost to implement

SAVINGS (billions US $)

Net savings by 2050

Impact:

Taken on its own, the production of energy storage does not reduce emissions; instead, energy storage enables adoption of wind and solar energy. No carbon impact numbers are included above in order to prevent double counting with the variable renewable energy solutions themselves. As with other forms of grid flexibility, the costs and total growth are not modeled directly.

Energy Storage (Utilities)

Electricity Generation

Energy storage — daily, multiday, and longer-term or seasonal — is vital to reduce emissions from polluting “peaker” plants and accommodate the shift to variable renewables.

Utilities have long operated on the model of producing sufficient electricity to meet demand in real time. To supplement large coal, gas, or nuclear plants, they rev up highly polluting “peaker” plants as needed. Energy storage — daily, multiday, and longer-term or seasonal — is vital to reduce peaker emissions and accommodate the shift to variable renewables, namely wind and solar.

How does a utility store large amounts of electricity? One option is pumping water from lower reservoirs into higher ones, ideally 1,500 feet higher. The water is released back down into the lower reservoir as needed and runs through power-generating turbines. There are more than 200 pumped-storage systems in the world at present, accounting for 97 percent of global storage capacity.

Concentrated solar power plants are also at the forefront of energy storage, where molten salt is used to hold heat until it is needed to generate electricity. Then, there are batteries at scale. Dozens of start-ups and established companies are racing to create low-cost, low-toxicity, and safe batteries that will revolutionize energy storage, while some utilities are already installing banks of lithium-ion batteries to help meet peak demand.

Vs

Plant-Rich Diet

Food

Meat-centric diets come with a steep climate price tag: one-fifth of global emissions. Plant-rich diets dramatically reduce emissions and rates of chronic disease.

Read more

Rank and results by 2050 #4

Plant-Rich Diet

Reduced CO2: 66 gigatons
What do these numbers mean?

TOTAL CO2-EQ REDUCTION (GT)

Total CO2-equivalent reduction in atmospheric greenhouse gases by 2050 (gigatons)

NET COST (billions US $)

Net cost to implement

SAVINGS (billions US $)

Net savings by 2050

Impact:

Using country-level data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, we estimate the growth in global food consumption by 2050, assuming that lower-income countries will consume more food overall and higher quantities of meat as economies grow. If 50 percent of the world’s population restricts their diet to a healthy 2,500 calories per day and reduces meat consumption overall, we estimate at least 26.7 gigatons of emissions could be avoided from dietary change alone. If avoided deforestation from land use change is included, an additional 39.3 gigatons of emissions could be avoided, making healthy, plant-rich diets one of the most impactful solutions at a total of 66 gigatons reduced.

Plant-Rich Diet

Food

Meat-centric diets come with a steep climate price tag: one-fifth of global emissions. Plant-rich diets dramatically reduce emissions and rates of chronic disease.

Shifting to a diet rich in plants is a demand-side solution to global warming that runs counter to the meat-centric Western diet on the rise globally. That diet comes with a steep climate price tag: one-fifth of global emissions. If cattle were their own nation, they would be the world’s third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases.

Plant-rich diets reduce emissions and also tend to be healthier, leading to lower rates of chronic disease. According to a 2016 study, business-as-usual emissions could be reduced by as much as 70 percent through adopting a vegan diet and 63 percent for a vegetarian diet, which includes cheese, milk, and eggs. $1 trillion in annual health-care costs and lost productivity would be saved.

Bringing about dietary change is not simple because eating is profoundly personal and cultural, but promising strategies abound. Plant-based options must be available, visible, and enticing, including high-quality meat substitutes. Also critical: ending price-distorting government subsidies, such as those benefiting the U.S. livestock industry, so that the prices of animal protein more accurately reflect their true cost.

As Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh has said, making the transition to a plant-based diet may be the most effective way an individual can stop climate change.

Start again