Background[edit]
Since the industrial revolution, the burning of coal, oil, and gas has released millions of tons of carbon dioxide, methane, and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, causing anthropogenic climate change. By 2020, the Earth's average temperature was 1 °C higher than pre-industrial levels. The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) calculated in its 2014 Synthesis Report that relative to the period of 1850-1900, the end of the 21st century (2081-2100) could see global mean surface temperature increase of 1.5-2.5°C.[14] Burning a fraction of fossil fuel reserves will therefore lead to dangerous planetary heating, resulting in widespread crop failures, and the 6th mass extinction event.[15]
By the end of 2019, increasing incidents of wild fires in Australia, the Amazon rainforest in Brazil, and the Arctic forests in Russia had been reported,[16] as well as increased risks of hurricanes in the United States and Caribbean, and flooding. In 2015, most countries signed the Paris Agreement committing to limit global carbon emissions to prevent temperature rises by over 2°C, with an ambition to limit temperature rise to 1.5°C. Activists and politicians, particularly younger people, demanded a "Green New Deal" in the US,[17] a Green Industrial Revolution in the UK, and to end the use of fossil fuels in transport, energy generation, agriculture, buildings, and finance. In late 2019, the EU announced a European Green Deal, although this was said to fall far short of the goal of ending fossil fuel use in the bloc by 2050.[18]
In early 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic caused countries to lock down their economies, in an attempt to prevent infections and deaths. This required many businesses to suspend work, as people travelled less, shopped less, and stayed at home to work more. In most countries, this caused job losses. The fall in economic activity also caused a fall in greenhouse gas emissions.[19] [20] This drove groups to call for, and politicians and governments to promise, a green recovery.
In earlier discourses, the positive side effects of green policies have been termed co-benefits. According to the IPCC, co-benefits are "the positive effects that a policy or measure aimed at one objective might have on other objectives, without yet evaluating the net effect on overall social welfare".[21] Renewable energies can boost employment and industrial development. Depending on the country and the deployment scenario, replacing coal power plants with renewable energy can more than double the number of jobs per average MW capacity (albeit, this represents a concomitant 50% productivity loss).[22] Besides economic effects, climate mitigation strategies can provide health-related co-benefits. Solar mini-grids can improve electricity access for rural areas[23] and the replacement of coal-based energy with renewables can lower the number of premature deaths caused by air pollution.[24]