Government, Market Forces, and Renewable Energy Systems - Essay Example

To tackle this issue globally there have been recent researches in the line of climate change mitigation, use of renewable resources, and energy economics. Climate mitigation relates to activities associated with the alleviation of the potentially harmful aftereffects of global warming by “implementing policies to reduce GHG emissions and enhance sinks” (Verbruggen, A., IPCC Glossary Working Group III, annex I, 818). The UN delineates climate mitigation as a form of “human intervention to reduce the sources or enhance the sinks of greenhouse gases” (United Nations, Glossary of climate change acronyms, 2011).

 Examples for mitigation include using renewable energy resources like wind or solar power, judicious use of fossil fuels in industries or for production of electric power, bettering building insulation, afforestation, and increasing the number of other sinks that would displace larger amounts of atmospheric carbon dioxide from the atmosphere (ibid). . However, an April 2011 report shows that the atmospheric volume level of CO2 by itself is 393 ppm, while increasing at an average annual rate of 1-3 ppm (Direct Air Capture of CO2 with Chemicals, 2011, 4).

Therefore, to avoid violating the target set at 2 °C targets, the levels of CO2 in the atmosphere must necessarily be stabilized as soon as possible, though it is unlikely that the set target would be achieved soon (Adam, World will not meet 2oC warming target, climate change experts agree, 2009). However, a majority of the nations consider mitigation strategies for greenhouse gas emissions as expensive, and there is a widespread debate regarding mitigation costs and the nature of costs-distribution of climate change mitigation, amongst the developed, the developing, and the underdeveloped nations.

Ensuring climate change and energy supply security are the core concerns for a majority of the world’s policymakers aiming to frame a worldwide energy system that is sustainable in nature. 1 Climate Change To meet the EU target of keeping global temperature rise below 2oC, the volume of atmospheric CO2 equivalents must be kept within volume limits of 445 - 490 ppm, as expressed in the 2007 report of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 2007). In 2005, greenhouse gas emission concentration had already reached CO2 equivalents of 450 ppm, owing to which IPCC had appraised in the report that greenhouse gas discharge must reach its highest level latest by 2015 (ibid).