[Column] We can’t wait any longer to eliminate fossil fuels and convert to renewables   

Recent catastrophes indicate we’ve reached a critical point that requires immediate action

Posted on : Sep.13,2020

South Korean President Moon Jae-in finishes giving a speech at the 2019 UN Climate Action Summit in New York on Sept. 23, 2019. (Yonhap News)

South Korea’s recent record-breaking monsoon season, a slew of powerful typhoons, and COVID-19 all point to the same thing — climate change has reached a critical stage where it can no longer be ignored. In order to defuse this crisis, we have to stop emitting greenhouse gases. We can’t wait any longer to eliminate fossil fuels and convert to 100% renewable energy if we’re to save not only the human race, but all creatures on the earth.

It’s not a question of whether to transition to renewable energy, but how fast we can do so. The countries of Europe are moving resolutely to speed up that transition. Germany has increased the share of renewable energy from 6.6% in 2000 to 52% this year. Only a decade ago, the UK relied on coal for 40% of its power, but it recently brought coal usage down to zero and boosted renewable energy to 37% of its energy mix. In the US, renewables and natural gas are jostling for first place among sources of power. Japan’s goal is to achieve 100% in renewable energy usage by 2050.

Compare that with South Korea, which aims to increase renewable energy from the current level of 7% to 20% in 2030. We’re still a decade away from reaching a goal that Western countries have already achieved. Nevertheless, conservative politicians and some media outlets indignantly accuse the Moon administration of overinvesting in solar energy and other renewables. They inevitably trot out objections about the technical limitations of renewable energy.

In reality, transitioning to 100% renewable energy is mostly a matter of will. 

The goal is completely achievable right now using the technology in our possession.

A plan for this tradition was offered by Mark Jacobson, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University, and Mark Delucchi, a research scientist at the University of California, Berkeley, all the way back in 2009 in an article titled, “A Plan to Power 100 Percent of the Planet with Renewables.”

In a paper printed in “Energy Policy,” the most authoritative journal in the field, Jacobson and Delucchi wrote that the developed world could convert most or all of its infrastructure to renewable energy in 20-40 years. Jacobson has stuck with this research topic, increasing the number of countries to 143. In regard to South Korea, he said that South Korea could switch to 100% renewables by 2050. That transition would reduce the number of deaths from atmospheric pollution by 9,000 a year and would create 1.4 million more jobs than would be lost.

While delivering an online lecture as part of a recent forum held by the Korean Climate Change Center, Jacobson said that various energy conversion devices he’d installed in his house, built in 2017, earned him US$700 a year from his state government. Solar panels on his roof produced 120% of the energy used on his house and electric car; instead of paying for his electricity and heating and gas at the pump, he could sell the power company whatever electricity he didn’t need. In addition to the solar panels, Jacobson also has an electric-powered heat pump and heater that transfer heat from inside and outside the house into a reservoir. He prepares food on an induction cooktop. “It’s just not true that natural gas, coal, and petroleum are necessary. That’s just a myth,” Jacobson said.

Ultimately, our will is the key element that makes this transition possible. There must be collective will, resolve, and determination. The only way to prevent the planet from plunging irrevocably into a boiling cauldron is for ordinary people to take the climate crisis seriously, pressuring policymakers to take action and the state to aggressively implement the Green New Deal to enable this energy transition.

This year, people around the world have worn masks in their everyday lives — not only in Seoul and New York, London and Berlin, but even in Pyongyang. Just one year ago, surely no one could have imagined that we’d be living through such an abnormal, even dystopian, situation. Long ago, we lost any hope that this bizarre crisis would just blow over. Each day is a struggle for small business owners whose livelihood depends upon the volume of foot traffic. But we know that they aren’t the only ones who will suffer, which makes it all the more frightening to contemplate the future. Is it possible for humanity to examine the cause of this situation and to muster the unflagging resolution that is required? Or will we helplessly trudge down the path to our own annihilation?

Sept. 7, next Monday, has been designated as Blue Sky Day (short for the International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies), in accordance with a proposal that the South Korean government submitted to the UN. The idea originated with a participant in a citizens’ panel with Korea’s National Council on Climate and Air Quality, which was created to resolve the issue of fine dust, and the UN accepted South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s proposal to designate the day during a climate action summit at the UN last year. The holiday was named for the blue skies that Koreans so longed to see when the skies were choked with particulate matter in early 2019, at a time when no one could have guessed that we’d be battling with COVID-19 one year later. There’s no telling what other climate disasters await us a year from now, or two years from now. We all need to take interest and show some resolve.

By Park Ki-yong, head of the climate change team @hani.co.kr