Chris Goodall runs the Carbon Commentary newsletter, and is the author of The Switch and What We Need to Do Now. Possible is another example of his clear explanations of what sustainability requires, this time taking a global look at net zero targets.
The general route to net zero is pretty well understood: electrify everything, with lots of energy storage and some hydrogen for specialist applications. That is of course an oversimplification, but this broad approach gets us most of the way there. It’s the last 20% or so that needs more attention. “Those remaining difficult parts of the transition are what much of this book is about,” writes Goodall in his introduction.
The book starts with an overview of that ‘electrify everything’ strategy. How much renewable energy can the world build, and where are we now? This is largely positive news. The price of renewable energy is now lower than fossil fuels in most places, and the momentum is with clean energy. With a circular economy to keep materials in circulation, we should have the metals and minerals required for the transition.
The biggest obstacle in many places is underinvestment in the grid. There’s a waiting list and too much paperwork involved. “The UK has a current backlog of 1,400 separate projects seeking to connect to the high voltage network”, he notes. A couple of them are local to me and I know how frustrating this can be. Electrification for net zero looks entirely feasible then, but don’t believe anyone who implies it will be easy.
The next sections of the book look at a series of sectors that present more of a challenge. Steel, cement, plastic. Heavy good vehicles. Aviation. Food and farming. Towards the end Goodall investigates the drawing down of CO2 from the atmosphere through natural solutions and carbon removal – both of which are essential at this point, since the world is responding so late to the climate crisis.
There are a couple of things that I really value about Goodall’s work, and why this is the fourth book of his that I’ve reviewed here. One is that he explains sustainability issues with admirable clarity, crunching the numbers and explaining what various technologies can and can’t do. There’s no particular agenda at work, no effort to persuade readers to support one solution over another. It’s all about what might work, where the gaps are, and all presented with a hopeful realism.
The second thing I appreciate is that Goodall is a well-connected observer of green technologies. He has an ear to the ground and I often hear about things first from his newsletter. The Italian porcelain company using green hydrogen in its kilns; Maersk’s methanol powered container ship; The long distance electric coaches running in India. I have taken notes for future articles.
Many examples come from China, which is “moving faster than almost any other country in actually developing the core industries required”, from renewable energy to hydrogen to electric vehicles. “The widespread global ignorance of the country’s utterly central position in the energy transition should concern us,” writes Goodall. “Not for nationalistic reasons but because the rest of the world should be learning assiduously from the Chinese experience and attempting to copy it.”
Possible majors on technologies and how they can be scaled up. There’s nothing on the other side of the coin, which is scaling down fossil fuels. As we know, it’s not a neutral world and a simple swap. Fossil power is putting up a fight, and the book doesn’t dig into the politics, the vested interests, and the various ways of overcoming them. Neither does it deal with geopolitics, cultural divides or the differences in how net zero is going in various parts of the world. There’s no great distinction between what rich countries need to do and the different challenges in developing countries.
That’s not a criticism – that’s for other books. As the title suggests, this is all about what is technically possible. If that’s where your questions about net zero lie, then this is a book you will find very useful.
- Possible is published by Profile and is available from Earthbound Books UK
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