What Covid-19 taught us about Climate Change
Tags: Coronavirus, Covid 19, Pandemic, Tesla, Climate Change

What Covid-19 taught us about Climate Change

Photo by David von Diemar on Unsplash

For three years in a row, the World Economic Forum’s risks report has ranked climate change as the biggest global threat of our time. This is particularly relevant because in previous years economic problems were deemed the biggest threats to mankind. Many actions have been taken to tackle the issue. In 2015,the Paris Agreement set out a global framework to avoid dangerous climate change by limiting global warming to well below 2°C and pursuing efforts to limit it to 1.5°C. The pact provided a pathway for developed nations to assist developing nations in their climate mitigation and adaptation efforts. Despite its many flaws, the Paris Agreement represented a necessary first step. And then came 2020; an unexpectedly difficult year which offered a unique opportunity to collect valuable data assessing our efforts to realistically meet the Paris targets.

Up to this point, you’re probably wondering what exactly this article has to do with Elon Musk. We get it; climate change is a big deal! Nearly every nation agreed to cut their climate-altering pollution and to strengthen those commitments over time. However we’ve seen on many occasions that the commitments are very fragile and vulnerable to special interests and different ideologies. This is exaclty where the genius of Elon Musk comes into play. He anticipated all the possible scenarios and addressed the vital few. Every venture he embarks on, with maybe the exception of Neuralink , ultimately is a potential best solution to our climate challenge.

Tesla

Before covid-19, carbon dioxide emission has been on the rise by about 1% per year over the past decade. During that time, renewable energy production expanded worldwide with solar power taking the lead. Fossil energy , however, continued to be deployed and emissions from surface transport continued to rise.This is due to the increasing demand both in electricity and surface transport worldwide as people and countries gradually come out of poverty. In a recent article published by Le Quere in Nature analyzing activity data up to april 2020 which coincides with the peak confinement period worldwide, some surprising results were revealed in relation to the changes in daily activities due to the pandemic and global CO2 emission.

During confinement, the aviation sector saw a decrease in daily activities of -75% while surface transport experienced a reduction of -50% . Other sectors such as industry and public sectors (-35%), Power (-15%)and residential sector (+5%) were also studied. The overall effect of the confinement up to april was to decrease daily global CO2 emission by -17% relative to mean level of emissions in 2019. With the extreme measures and circumstances, this represented by far the most impactful and positive human contribution to climate change ever. For this to happen, global emissions from surface transport fell by –36% and made the largest contribution to the total emissions change. Despite a decline of -60 % in the aviation sector, which underwent the highest anomaly of any sector, this decrease only accounted for 10% of the global decrease in CO2 observed during that period. (Find full article here).

All of this means that surface transport is the bottleneck to our climate change problem and Tesla has figured out half of the answer.Two decades ago, very few perceived electric vehicles as cool. In fact, the first electric vehicle to have crossed the 100 km/h mark (in 1899) was named “Jamais Contente” which means never happy in french. This further illustrates how depressing and boring the sector has been for years. Today, it feels cool to own a Tesla. Although I can’t afford a Tesla at the moment, I fancy the idea of owning a model 3, a cybertruck or a roadster as much as I do for any other luxurious car. This shift in perception constitutes a major part of the transition towards mass production of electric vehicles. Looks and performance are now a new normal. Tesla made most of that possible. We should not expect 50 % of the global population to drive a Tesla by 2050 (as it could be the case in Norway). Also, Tesla’s plan to make more affordable cars in the future is quite hazy. Not every one can afford Jordan’s but there sure is a Nikey gear or shoe in most closets around the world. Will Elon mould Tesla into something similar? In any case, Tesla has gifted something major to any potential EV manufacturer: this product is cool and increasingly normal.

So far we’ve explored only one half of the surface transport equation. Energy production for EV manufacturing and storage make up that other half. There again, Tesla has half of their approach right. Their battery technology is top-notch and can eventually be applied in other fields outside of EVs. A complete life cycle analysis of a Tesla car could quickly become a strenuous feat due to the complexity or secrecy of certain manufacturing processes and raw materials formulations. However, from what’s been made publicly available, the company has embraced new technology and efficient production technology for production of its parts. The effort for production efficiency is justified in part by the use of robots to eliminate wastes and the company building its own battery manufacturing facility. As it is often the case in renewable energy technologies, there exists no absolute solution to our global warming challenge. For each sector, the best solution is the one that triggers a fundamental shift in our approach and perception of the problem. Tesla has succeeded in that.

Solar City/Tesla Solar

Since the annoucement of Powerwall 2 and Solar roof, there has been very little news from Tesla about new technology for sustainable energy generation. For a man who loves wearing different hats, it’s fair to say that Elon Musk in recent years has been less prolific in large scale power generation technologies. Maybe this is simply a calculated choice. Maybe he has something up his sleeve that we have yet to know about.

Space X

To some extent, we’ve all experienced the complexity of the climate change challenge. Even if the most fervent advocates of climate change were to consciously dedicate their daily activities towards a reduction of CO2 emission and governments around the world met their NDC targets, there would still be a high probability of failure.It is a possibility that our best measures and policies fall short of the expectations to stop global warming. What is the next best solution other than an escape plan?

Elon Musk created Space X in the hopes of revolutionizing the aerospace industry and making affordable spaceflight a reality. In 2020, Space X became the first private company to send astronauts to orbit and to the International Space Station. That hope has now evolved to a believable desire to colinize Mars. Before writing this article, I have watched as many Elon interviews as i possibly could and I have yet to find out why he thinks we would need to leave earth at some point. Yes, exploring a new planet, pushing human boundaries are obvious answers. But we’re talking about a man who went broke to save his companies. Sending a few rich folks to space can’t be the real goal here, can it? My gut feeling tells me it’s climate change.

Conclusion

Covid-19 has taught us many valuable lessons. It has showed us the importance of recognizing the true purpose of all our businesses and economies, our political parties and governments, our local civic associations and our international organizations, our conventions and ideologies, and all our other systems. It revealed to us the magnitude of global warming challenge. Even with our best efforts, we could still fall short of the targets and deny future generations the right to call this planet home. Climate change requires bold ideas. Elon has made billions capitalizing on bold ideas to tackle the world biggest challenge. It’s okay to follow suit.