The World Bank article, “Low-carbon infrastructure: an essential solution to climate change,” explains the contribution of infrastructure to carbon emissions.
According to the report, infrastructure emissions from power plants, buildings, and transport accounts of global GHG emissions. One of the possible consequences of these emissions will be 720 million people will be pushed to poverty 2050, the Overseas Development Institute approximates.
Deaths from emissions from key infrastructure industries will be increasing will rise from the current 150,000 per year to 250,000 by 2030, according to the WHO report (Saha, 2018).
To prevent further damage to the environment and people, low-carbon emissions is the key.
Examples for low-carbon emissions are railway infrastructure which reduces the number of carbon-emitting trucks, urban transport projects that lowers car-usage, and renewable energy projects like solar, wind, and hydropower.
There are also emerging trends in low-carbon infrastructure, according to the article, particularly after 2010. Governments support in low-carbon projects grew from 3% before 2010 to 51% afterwards.
Most of this low-carbon infrastructure surge comes from renewable climate-friendly transport projects. After 2010 the share of renewable energy projects has increased from around 50% to 85%.
As renewable energy is the symbol for low-carbon infrastructure, huge emitters like China, India, Brazil, Turkey and Romania are starting to include renewable sources into their energy mix.
The article says that the private sector invests more on renewables compared to governments, which surprisingly continues to invest in conventional energy.
If we aim to meet the global temperature rise within 2 degrees by 2050, the government and private sectors need to intensify their climate mitigation efforts (Saha, 2018).
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Source citation:
Saha, D. (2018, April 5). Low-carbon infrastructure: an essential solution to climate change? World Bank Blogs. Retrieved from https://blogs.worldbank.org/ppps/low-carbon-infrastructure-essential-solution-climate-change
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