Reader's Response - Draft 4

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 would 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 in terms of increased international resolve and partnership. It was concluded that the progress on vaccines has proven that nothing is impossible if everyone works together to combat climate change.

Among the aforementioned points, Sharma (2020) stated that the UK government would stop providing new support to the overseas fossil fuel sector. However, ceasing support to overseas fossil fuels is in direct conflict of interests for increased international partnerships. Although ridding the world of fossils may be readily received as the incontestable direction for a greener planet, those same fossil fuels remain a fundamental instrument to power greener alternatives in a bid to create a sustainable planet. The production of lithium-ion batteries exemplifies this.

In the transition to a sustainable world such as that envisioned by the Paris Agreement, lithium-ion battery powered electric vehicles might replace petrol vehicles to reduce carbon emissions. However, 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 a major electric car manufacturer, built a solar powered factory to produce lithium-ion batteries (Andrews, 2018). However, Tesla was 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).

Additionally, Lithium is mined via energy-consuming processes in many countries such as Australia, Chile, and Argentina. Chile and Argentina obtain lithium from salt deserts while Australia obtains lithium from mineral ore. Most lithium extractions involve mining to reach underground deposits of lithium-rich minerals or brines and is sometimes sent to China for processing in a more energy intensive cycle after extraction (Bauer, 2020). Hard rock mining requires lots of electricity that is generated from coal which is a fossil fuel. According to Early (2020), new methods of extracting lithium from geothermal waters produces lesser environmental impacts than conventional methods. In the meantime, while the world transitions to alternative extraction methods, fossil fuels are still required to source for lithium. It is impractical for UK to halt support for fossil fuels that are a key component for the production of lithium-ion batteries.

Next, the transportation of lithium-ion batteries from production sites and to recycling processes via petrol vehicles utilises 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 (Infineon, n.d.). Used batteries also need to be transported across the world to be recycled due to its need for a specific recycling method. Fossil fuels power the transportations utilised in the movement of lithium-ion battery orders.

Lastly, the recycling plants that lithium-ion batteries are sent to be processed at rely heavily on fossil fuels. More than 90% of the lead-acid batteries used in petrol vehicles are recycled, a stark contrast to a 5% lithium-ion batteries recycling rate (Goncalves, 2018). The remaining batteries are either 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 is similar to the ones used in the mining industry. These huge recycling facilities globally are energy consuming, which require lots of fossil fuels (Jacoby, 2019). Hence, UK should maintain support for fossil fuels that power the recycling plants to allow sustainable recycling to continue.

In conclusion, fossil fuels should not be rendered obsolete by the UK in their pursuit for a green world because they are still essential in the production and maintenance of their sustainable practices. It is admissible that the usage of fossil fuels emit carbon but it is the same fossil fuels that are instrumental in producing greener solutions. Until the coalition of countries invested in the Paris Agreement find greener sustainable alternatives for it, fossil fuels are definitely vital for societies to function.

 

 

 

References

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

Bauer, S. (2020, December 2). Explainer: The opportunities and challenges of the lithium industry. Dialogo Chino. https://dialogochino.net/en/extractive-industries/38662-explainer-the-opportunities-and-challenges-of-the-lithium-industry/

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/

Infineon. (n.d.). Why ships of the future will run on electricity. https://www.infineon.com/cms/en/discoveries/electrified-ships/

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, world 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