How to control climate change | Tech in Synergy | Dr. Jolly Wong

The International Energy Agency says 33 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide will be released into the atmosphere this year, an average of 4.2 tonnes per person.

It is well known that carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas and that its continued production is a main cause of anthropogenic climate change.

Long-term climate change has devastating consequences, such as more frequent floods, heat waves and super storms.

Besides making some locations uninhabitable, it also destroys ecosystems and exacerbates the global refugee crisis.

Of course, climate change also raises average global temperatures.

In Hong Kong, the past two years have been the hottest since 1884, when record keeping began.

And on May 23 the Hong Kong Observatory recorded the hottest May temperature of 36.1 degrees Celsius.

Climate scientists predict global average temperatures to rise between 2.6 and 4.8 degrees by the end of the century.

Furthermore, the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions says every degree of temperature rise can lead to about a

1 percent loss in world gross domestic product.

Thus, there are both existential and economic reasons to combat climate change.

Many initiatives have been launched to meet the climate challenge.

There is the Paris agreement of 2016, when 191 countries and regions committed to a maximum two-degree rise in global average temperature compared to preindustrial levels.

More recently, politicians and policymakers have talked of "net zero emission" targets.

Such a target means a jurisdiction removes as much greenhouse gases from the atmosphere as they emit into it.

It is also possible to set a net zero target specifically for carbon dioxide, and a system that removes as much CO2 as it produces is considered "carbon neutral."

These targets are now commonplace.

It has been reported that more than 53 jurisdictions and 700 individual cities have committed themselves to reaching the target of net zero emission.

For example, China has pledged to become carbon neutral by 2060, the United Kingdom by 2050 and Hong Kong before 2050.

The obvious way to achieve net zero emission is to reduce emissions.

Examples of reducing emissions include personal lifestyle changes and using technology to create new methods of production that produce less greenhouse gases than traditional methods.

It is technically possible to achieve net zero emission through reduction alone - that is, if we emit no greenhouse gases at all.

However, this is improbable so most jurisdictions will also need to offset the hopefully reduced amount of emission in order to achieve net zero.

The classical example of carbon offsetting is reforestation, such as the large-scale tree planting projects funded by UK Research and Innovation in Britain.

However, there are also recent attempts to use carbon reduction technology to actively remove carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases directly from the atmosphere.

This process is called carbon capture, utilization and storage.

I will continue to examine some of the most interesting technologies that help us achieve net zero emission in detail next week.

Dr Jolly Wong is a policy fellow at the Centre for Science and Policy, University of Cambridge