This year's Emission Gap Report states that CO2 emissions are heading in the wrong direction. Read about five possible solutions.
COP26 starts this weekend in Glasgow and as usual, UNEP has published the Emission Gap Report right before the COP.
The report summarizes the state of the world's CO2 emissions, and estimates the difference between the world's expected future emissions of greenhouse gases and the emissions needed to achieve the international climate goals.
The Emission Gap Report indicates that global efforts are seriously lagging behind the objectives of the Paris Agreement and that, in the light of current climate climate-pledges; we are heading for a rise temperatures of 2.7 degrees this century. However, it also stresses that it is still possible to limit both global warming and the damaging effects of it, if we act now.
Below you can read about five examples of sustainable technologies, which DTU is developing and researching, and which can help the emissions get back on track.
Wind energy
Along with the increasing electrification, the world will need an ever-larger energy volume from electricity grids. And—globally—less than a third of the electricity consumption is covered by renewable energy.
In other words, there is a need to increase the production capacity of renewable electrical energy quite significantly, as energy must also be produced for Power-to-X, which can replace fossil fuels. In Denmark and many other countries, wind energy plays a key role in this context.
DTU is working on solutions to integrate Power-to-X directly in wind turbines, to optimize floating wind turbines, and to design wind turbines tailored to the specific task and location (Design for X).
All these parts will come into play when DTU helps develop energy islands in the North Sea, where the vision is to increase the number of offshore wind turbines and connect them to so-called energy hubs, for example in the form of artificial islands.
