Getting to ‘net-zero’ emissions: How energy leaders envision countering climate change in the future
Editors’ Note: Under current proposals from Brooklyn city council members – like the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, which the Eagle covered Oct. 13 – greenhouse emissions must be at least 80 percent below the 1990 output in order to avert the most catastrophic effects of the two-degree warming mark. Investors in energy companies are not feeling the pressure to completely move away from fossil fuels, yet such fuels are occupying a shrinking portion of energy producers. In 2021, the petroleum industry lost over 31,000 jobs (a net decrease of 6.4 percent) and the coal fuel industry lost over 7,000 (a total loss of 11.8 percent of the industry) according to the Department of Energy. As explained by legislators in the CLCPA, construction and building maintenance are on the frontlines of adapting the city to new environmental challenges posed by more extreme weather events, such as flooding. The government must set labor standards and play an institutional role to centralize the response to climate change, avoid ‘leakage’ or outsourcing, and pursue climate goals rigorously, despite some investors’ hesitancy.
With the federal government promising over U.S. $360 billion in clean energy incentives under the Inflation Reduction Act, energy companies are already lining up investments. It’s a huge opportunity, and analysts project that it could help slash U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by about 40% within the decade.
But in conversations with energy industry leaders in recent months, we have heard that financial incentives alone aren’t enough to meet the nation’s goal of reaching net-zero emissions by 2050.