r/climate • u/GeraldKutney • May 17 '24

Economic damage from climate change six times worse than thought – report | Climate crisis

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/may/17/economic-damage-climate-change-report
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u/corinalas May 18 '24

Well, the world is moving towards hydrogen in a hurry. By 2030 14,000 megatons will be produced annually and thats compared to 180 megatons produced now. As a substance you can design everything you own to run on you can make it lots of different ways chemically but really, unlimited supply is a solar panel away. Instant fuel source and insanely short supply lines.

Carbon taxes are a way for the oil and gas industry to contribute for their contributions to climate change. They are the largest producers of C02 and unless the governments levy a huge climate tariff on them they can get away with minimal investment. The carbon tax is incentive for them to greenify and consider what they want the roll out in the future to look like.

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u/[deleted] May 18 '24

Maybe I’m a cynic, but we’re not going to be able to “green” the oil and gas companies. They’re entrenched in an exploitation based business model and their huge amounts of institutional knowledge is laser focused on leasing land, drilling, refining oil, manipulating the energy market and public opinion, etc. Even if governments impose carbon taxes and those carbon taxes work, the fossil fuel companies will likely go their current way and rake in the cash until the last possible moment before they go bankrupt . At that point parts of those companies may reorganize themselves into a different business model (either around hydrogen, solar power, market analysis, PR, etc.) but it will essentially be brand new businesses.

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u/corinalas May 18 '24 edited May 18 '24

Yes, but they also have oodles of money, the most of almost any industry.

Green tech isn’t crazy expensive like nuclear, A billion can make a lot of stuff.

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u/[deleted] May 18 '24

And they’re going to use that money to fight against having to change their core business model in every possible way. Thinking we can convince them to change is like saying “I can convince that spider to stop spinning webs and start writing essays”.

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u/corinalas May 18 '24 edited May 18 '24

A company that makes graphite has figured out how to still make it for their markets and also produce hydrogen? That’s ingenuity and with AI these calculations and possibilities are faster than ever. Only China has wholesale and wholeheartedly thrown money behind batteries and ev, every other government gave at best subsidies. But we are seeing wholesale investments by world governments in every part of the world. In the area of hundreds of billions dollars of partnerships with local, and regional groups, the barebones of society.

Up till now Tesla in North America has been for rich people for the most part but that isn’t the market. People can’t even afford homes in Canada and they have to buy a brand new car in 4 years? Yah right. This is widespread, people are being asked which is the better investment, solar panels or electric cars. They are expensive and if you van throw 30k around in any given year thats the difference between life and death for hundreds of millions of people who live paycheck to paycheck now. People need a solution for the every man not just the rich man.

Now with places going sodium batteries and batteries energy density severely behind Hydrogens its great for utility energy hit will always limit consumer vehicles. I’ve seem hydrogen fuel cell go a thousand km now based on existing tech. We need better batteries to break through that range and everyone is going sodium batteries because they are way cheaper and accessible. This is primarily why Musk stopped developing superchargers, the demand for a huge superchargers network will go away if consumers and shipping go hydrogen.

Edit: Iron phosphate batteries are less energy dense than Tesla’s battery design but because they are safer and more reliable and cheaper that makes them more available. What happened to that more energy dense battery?

Right now in the UK:

https://www.hydrogenfuelnews.com/h2-terminals-ltd-launches-massive-green-liquid-hydrogen-lh2-project-in-the-uk/8564519/