As fossil gas and oil prices are rising again because of yet another war in the Middle East, I am increasingly looking forward to a world where most if not all of our energy will come from renewables. As our world currently relies for roughly 80% on fossil fuels, one can see what a daunting challenge the energy transition is, even if solar PV and wind power are now an unstoppable juggernaut.
After over 20 years of commitment to sustainability and renewable energy, I am convinced that – aided with significant gains in energy efficiency, conservation and sobriety – a post fossil fuels world could be within reach in the coming decades. This is actually an imperative if we are to tackle climate change and its many adverse impacts on human health and societies.
We have seen it time and again : our economies are built on wasting key resources and gross inefficiencies. For example, one thinks of the 80% inefficiency of the internal combustion engines that power our vehicles and the 60 to 65% inefficiency of coal, gas or nuclear plants.
The efforts to decarbonize and electrify our societies are so worth it.
- With less or no coal, fossil gas and oil being burnt anymore, our cities and communities will have much lower local air pollution. This is something to remember as over 8 million people die because of air pollution every year. That’s 22,000 each day ! (Source : UNICEF).
- Every year, global warming causes billions of dollars worth of damages in increasingly horrible disasters. According to Climate Central,“2025 ranks as the third-highest year (after 2023 and 2024) for billion-dollar weather and climate disasters — with 23 such events costing a total of $115 billion in damages.” This could stop getting worse and worse if we act adequately.
- 40 percent of naval shipping globally is just for coal, gas and oil. Data from UNCTAD shows that “when the tonnages for coal, oil, gas and petrochemicals are summed up, they constitute nearly 4,500 million tons out of the 11,000 million tons of total maritime shipping.” Let us all switch to renewables and efficiency and all these boats and their pollution would disappear.
- Last but not least, in a post fossil fuels world, many autocrats and dictators will have drastically less money to spend on threatening world peace, invading their neighbors or bribing politicians in far away places. This alone could be a game changer for Europe and the rest of the world as well.
You might say I am a dreamer but I am not the only one. And this is actually pragmatic : not ending our over reliance on fossil fuels means runaway climate change. Our current systems will end and our societies will change, one way or another : Through choice and hard work or through catastrophes. Our relative inaction in the past decades show all too clearly what is at stake.
In most if not all cases, we already have the technology to turn the situation on its head. For example :
- The mighty heat pump : with 1 unit of electricity, one can produce 3 to 4 times more heat or cold. This can have massive implications for how we heat or cool our homes and neighborhoods and how we generate low grade heat for industrial applications.
- In conjunction with electric cars, more bikes and electric buses would mean more space for Nature and people alike. With more trains replacing planes we would all suffer much less from noise and stress in our cities.
- Halving the global food waste and turning the remaining stuff into biogas for cogeneration can be another massive win for our societies as decaying food and organic matter are a massive source of methane, a potent greenhouse gas.
You see, I do look forward to a post fossil fuels world. We have so many ways to act on climate, so much to win and so much to lose. Fortunately, some critical elements are trending towards the right direction. This will be the subject of a next article, so stay tuned for more !
Image credits : Ehimetalor Akhere Unuabona on Unsplash
