We need to decarbonise at the lowest cost possible, said this week’s Net Hero Podcast guest.
Javier Cavada, CEO and President of Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), Mitsubishi Power told us: ‘Two thirds, so 65 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions comes from electricity generation.
‘Globally electricity demand is booming as we scale up electrification, as our IT systems upgrade and we set up more data centres.
‘We have to understand that sending an email and posting on social media, using our phones emits greenhouse gasses. In fact, a diesel car is less polluting per day than one of these phones or tablets.
‘And so we have a huge challenge ahead of us and the responsibility to address this.
‘We already have places like Norway where generation is 100 per cent zero carbon because of hydropower. But we also have places like Germany where 40 per cent of its power comes from coal fire power plants.’
Javier told us that the only way to decarbonise successfully is to do it pragmatically.
‘We’ve seen recent geopolitical issues and issues with nuclear that has halted progress. In my opinion, we need to be ambitious and pragmatic to achieve net zero.
‘We can’t decarbonise instantly, its just not viable time-wise and financially.
‘What we’re doing at Mitsubishi is decarbonising existing infrastructure. So it is taking what already exists today and decarbonising that in the lowest cost and shortest time possible.
‘Last year, 33 per cent of all power produced was from coal, 23 per cent came from liquid oil and only 26 per cent came from gas. So if we replace coal or oil with gas, which emits less CO2 comparatively, we can cut 50-70 per cent of emissions produced by a previously coal or oil plant.’
Mitsubishi is aiming to triple their renewable production by 2030.
‘Last year, wind and solar only accounted for around 8-10 percent of all production. And tripling this, the best case scenario is just 24 percent. And the issues of intermittency and storage of solar and wind continues to be a problem.
‘So we are also working on increasing production of low or zero carbon gasses like ammonia and hydrogen. But this is not something we can do in one or two years, it will take time.’
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