about carbon neutrality

Today, I'd like to discuss a topic: carbon neutrality.

Speaking of carbon neutrality, we need to start with carbon emissions and global warming.

We say that human activities, industrial production, and the extensive extraction of coal, oil, and more, all result in significant carbon dioxide emissions. These emissions lead to the greenhouse effect, which accumulates and causes global climate change.

What are the potential consequences? Flooding, droughts, extreme cold and heatwaves, and glacier melting.

For instance, 90% of the world's ice and 70% of its freshwater are in Antarctica. If the ice in Antarctica were to melt entirely, it would mean a sea level rise of 66 meters.

What does that concept mean?

In China, where the terrain is higher in the west and lower in the east, several major cities, especially those along the eastern coast or the Yangtze River, have elevations lower than 66 meters.

This implies the entire eastern region would be submerged.

It would also lead to significant disruptions in the food chain.

With global warming, large ice chunks fall into the surrounding oceans each year, floating on the sea surface with many marine organisms beneath. Among them, zooplankton feed on phytoplankton, large fish feed on zooplankton, penguins feed on large fish, and killer whales feed on penguins.

Once global warming occurs, the quantity of floating ice would dramatically decrease, leading to a reduction in zooplankton, followed by a decline in krill, penguins, killer whales, and others.

This is an irreversible process, and the consequences of these chain reactions are unimaginable.

So, what's the solution? To curb global warming and carbon dioxide emissions, we have the concept of "carbon neutrality."

At the 2015 Climate Change Conference, United Nations member states reached a consensus to achieve global "carbon neutrality" between 2050 and 2100.

What is carbon neutrality? Simply put, it means offsetting carbon dioxide emissions with carbon dioxide absorption. This is achieved through activities like afforestation, reforestation, energy efficiency, and emissions reduction, effectively balancing out one's carbon footprint.

Therefore, global warming is not just a concern for environmental agencies and climatologists. Many countries have elevated carbon emission reduction to a national strategic level, resulting in "carbon politics" and "climate politics."

China has committed to achieving "carbon neutrality" by 2060 and "carbon peak" by 2030.

So, at the national level, achieving "carbon neutrality" means that the total carbon dioxide emissions released by a country in a year must be offset by an equivalent amount of carbon dioxide absorption.

What can be done?

Afforestation is one approach. However, to offset the annual carbon dioxide emissions of one person, it would require 12 trees with a maturity age of 10 years.

Relying solely on afforestation is not enough. To curb carbon emissions, we need to replace coal, oil, and other fossil fuels with clean energy sources.

But this complicates matters, as it requires balancing various factors. For example, China is a major carbon emitter and a manufacturing powerhouse, making it challenging to eliminate the use of coal and gasoline.

Consequently, internationally, a commercial solution has been proposed: carbon trading. By introducing market mechanisms, it incentivizes companies to innovate technologically to achieve carbon neutrality.

Since some companies emit less carbon than they are allocated, while others exceed their allocation, carbon emissions quotas can be bought and sold between countries and companies. This gave rise to carbon trading.

The emergence of carbon trading inevitably provides opportunities for some companies and compels others to change.

Therefore, "carbon neutrality" may appear to be an environmental concept but is, in fact, an economic one.

With the introduction of offset mechanisms in the carbon market, renewable energy will become a vital sector for green investment and financing. Regions and companies with an advantage in renewable energy resources such as solar, hydro, and wind will seize new opportunities. For example, the southeastern coastal areas and islands in China have abundant wind energy resources, while Inner Mongolia and the northern Gansu region have substantial wind energy resources. There's also ample sunlight in western regions.

Consequently, there is a need to build large-scale wind power and solar power plants in these areas and transmit the power eastward. This necessitates the enhancement of the power grid's transmission capacity, leading to new investment opportunities, such as ultra-high-voltage transmission lines.

Another issue to address is energy storage. For example, solar energy is only generated during the day when it may not be needed. When there is an abundance of photovoltaic and wind energy, this surplus energy must be stored for release when required. Thus, dedicated energy storage technologies are essential.

In addition to "carbon sources" such as heating and power supply, there are also "carbon ljyenergy.com/application">applications" in sectors like construction and transportation. For instance, in 2020, Tesla earned $1.58 billion in revenue from selling carbon credits.

When companies must consider carbon emissions and potentially pay a high price for carbon allowances, they are encouraged to switch materials and even alter their business models.