Net Zero By 2050
That is what you see on the front page of the International Energy Agency (IEA) website.
The previous article, “RESET COULD BE THE KEY TO DECARBONIZATION?” made me want to research more about energy companies. That's because these companies have the largest effect on climate change and I am hoping they are moving towards zero emission plans.
I began researching the company TotalEnergy because I already know they started to produce biofuel to reduce emissions for air travel and I thought they might have other ideas as well. It turns out their goal is excitingly ambitious: to transition from fossil fuel-based energy sources to more sustainable energies such as wind, solar, hydrogen and biogas. The plan is that they will spend the next ten years building the projects and skills needed to make TotalEnergies a net zero energy provider by 2050.
Another one of their biggest plans is to bury carbon dioxide deep into the ground. The way it works is they first capture CO2 from fuel combustion or industrial processes. The CO2 will then be transported by pipeline 100km offshore for storage 2600 meters under the seabed. The processes work to store CO2 indefinitely. The good thing is there are some other companies using the same process. But we need to hurry up to increase capacity to reach the the Net Zero Scenario.
According to TotalEnergy, CCUS (Carbon capture, utilization and storage) can capture 90 to 95 percent of an industrial facility’s emissions. The International Energy Agency (IEA) said this method could reduce greenhouse gas emissions worldwide by up to 14% by 2050. Globally, the goal by 2050 is to capture approximately 5 billion metric tons of CO2 per year in order to keep global warming below 2°C.
Other petroleum companies and venture companies are accelerating to work on this same technology. Governments are investing in those companies as well. Although this plan sounds great as a potential solution to reducing CO2 in our atmosphere, it will require a lot of cooperation globally to accomplish the carbon zero goal.