Reader's Response - Draft 2

In the article, “Five years since Paris Agreement, world must get ambitious on climate action”, Sharma (2020) addressed the world’s efforts to reduce the existing effects of climate change at the global Climate Ambition Summit. As of the fifth year of the Paris Agreement, Sharma noted that a total of 75 leaders had committed to include net-zero energy, nationally determined contributions (NDCs), adaptations and resilience in their plans. Amongst the submitted revised plans for climate action, he highlighted that the UK government will stop providing new support to the overseas fossil fuel energy sector. He also mentioned that Singapore intends to invest in environment centric projects with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s encouragement for a global climate change coalition. In addition, Sharma emphasised that a significant change in ambition is necessary to tackle climate change. Thus, improvements must be made by world leaders; increased international resolve and partnership. Sharma (2020) concluded that the progress on vaccines has proven that nothing is impossible if everyone works together to combat climate change.

In my opinion, fossil fuels should not be rendered obsolete in a green world because they are still essential in the production and maintenance of sustainable practices. In the transition to a sustainable world, lithium-ion battery powered electric vehicles will replace petrol vehicles to reduce carbon emissions. Fossil fuels are essential for the production of these lithium-ion batteries.

Firstly, fossil fuels are necessary as a raw material to mine lithium. Despite the availability of solar energy to produce lithium-ion batteries, there is no available method of sourcing for lithium sustainably. For instance, Tesla Inc. being one of the biggest electric car manufacturer, built a solar powered factory to produce lithium-ion batteries (Andrews, 2018). However, Tesla were only able to do so because China’s Yahua Industrial Group Co Ltd has been supplying the electric car manufacturer battery-grade lithium hydroxide (Daly, 2020).

Lithium is mined in many countries such as Australia, Chile and Argentina. Chile and Argentina get their lithium from salt deserts while Australia gets their lithium from mineral ore. Most lithium extraction requires some mining to reach underground deposits of lithium-rich minerals or brines and sometimes sent to China for processing in a more energy intensive cycle after extraction. Hard rock mining requires lots of electricity which are generated from coal. According to Early (2020), new method of extracting lithium from geothermal waters has lesser environment impact than conventional method, but during the transition, fossil fuels are still required.

Secondly, the transportation of lithium-ion batteries from production and to recycling via petrol vehicles requires fossil fuels. For instance, the only way to transport lithium from China to the United States is by cargo vessels. Currently, there are no electrical powered ships that can handle the distance, and the shipment of large volumes of lithium-ion batteries. The used batteries have to be transported around the world to be recycled due to its complexity, for example, Australia to Europe. Therefore, fossil fuels power the transportations utilised in the movement of lithium-ion battery orders, whether by ships or trucks.

Lastly, the recycling plants that lithium-ion batteries are sent to be processed rely heavily on the usage of fossil fuels. More than 90% of the lead-acid batteries used in petrol vehicles are recycled, compared to only 5% of the lithium-ion batteries used. The remaining will either be thrown into landfills or incinerated (Goncalves 2018). According to Jacoby (2019), these batteries gets recycled by undergoing “high temperature melting-and-extraction, or smelting” which are similar to the ones used in the mining industry. These huge recycling facilities globally are energy consuming, which require lots of fossil fuels. Hence, fossil fuels power the recycling plants that allow sustainable recycling to continue.

In conclusion, fossil fuels remain as a fundamental instrument to power greener alternatives in a bid to create a sustainable planet. It is admissible the usage of fossil fuels emits carbon but it is the same fossil fuels that are instrumental in producing greener solutions. Until we find greener sustainable alternatives for it, fossil fuels are definitely vital for our societies to function.

 

 

References

Andrews, R. (2018, December 12). Powering the Tesla Gigafactory. Energy Matters. https://euanmearns.com/powering-the-tesla-gigafactory/

Daly, T. (2020, December 29). China's Yahua agrees five-year deal to supply lithium to Tesla, Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-yahua-group-electric-tesla-lithium-idUSKBN293132

Early, C. (2020, November 25). The new ‘gold rush’ for green lithium. BBC. https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20201124-how-geothermal-lithium-could-revolutionise-green-energy

Goncalves, A. (2018, September 25). Are electric cars really greener? Youmatter. https://youmatter.world/en/are-electric-cars-eco-friendly-and-zero-emission-vehicles-26440/

Jacoby, M. (2019, July 14). It’s time to get serious about recycling lithium-ion batteries. Chemical & Engineering News. https://cen.acs.org/materials/energy-storage/time-serious-recycling-lithium/97/i28

Sharma, A. (2020, December 20). Commentary: Five years since Paris Agreement, word must get ambitious on climate action. Channel News Asia. https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/commentary/uncop26-climate-change-    commitment-net-zero-clean-energy-uk-13798700