可再生能源也会产生污染，但可以用这种技术解决
至2050年在全球范围内实现净零碳排放目标，需要绿色技术进步的推动，尤其是可再生能源技术，但解决气候变化问题决不能坐等新技术出现。
“我想强调的是，我们不应该一味地等待技术创新和成熟。事实上，我们已经有很多成熟的技术，应该立即投入应用，”欧洲政策中心欧洲可持续发展项目负责人安妮卡·赫德伯格表示。
在4月8日《财富》杂志举办的虚拟论坛上，赫德伯格谈到了数字解决方案可能对发电、电力存储和分配方式带来的改变。近几十年来，全球电力消费增长稳定，但城市化、企业数字化、电力汽车和其他公用事业的蓬勃发展将带来新一轮的电力需求激增。
据麦肯锡预测，到2050年，电力占全球能源消耗的比重将从现在的19%增加至30%。与此同时，国际能源署预计，由于可再生能源发电成本远低于化石燃料，未来十年内，全球80%的电力将由可再生能源产生。
但就可持续性而言，使用可再生能源和电力也要面对一系列挑战。
英国伯明翰大学法学教授罗伯特·李在谈到锂这一类电池原料时说：“简单地用金属经济取代碳氢经济是非常危险的。”金属开采过程本身会产生大量污染，而废弃电池的妥善处理则是另一大迫在眉睫的难题。
欧盟已做好了处理废弃电池的准备，并于去年通过立法，要求电池制造商为每一块电池贴上唯一的数字“护照”标签，以便在整个产品生命周期内进行跟踪。李教授认为，护照计划是数字技术解决方案的契机。
“区块链技术允许你完整地跟踪产品，以确保废弃产品不会被运往一些发展中国家进行拆解，给当地造成巨大的环境和健康危害，”李教授说。
气候保护人士则对区块链技术，或者更准确地说，对加密货币挖矿嗤之以鼻，因为给区块链数据中心供电、维持其运转产生了污染。不过，华为技术有限公司公共事务战略副总裁勒内·阿诺德表示，数字化转型带来的整体益处将超过其所需的能源成本。
“信息通信技术和数字化的确比较特殊，在这一领域里，它所产生的间接减排效应实际上远大于直接意义上的单个能源影响，”阿诺德解释，这就意味着通过引入数字技术、提高效率而节省的能源可以抵消数字化消耗的能量。
能源供应商利用远程传感器和人工智能监测技术，监控电力需求，有效分配电力，即可实现这种“抵消效应”。
“如果我们能充分发掘信息通信技术的潜力，[数字化]将对环境产生积极影响，并帮助我们实现预定的气候目标，”阿诺德说。（财富中文网）
译者：胡萌琦
至2050年在全球范围内实现净零碳排放目标，需要绿色技术进步的推动，尤其是可再生能源技术，但解决气候变化问题决不能坐等新技术出现。
“我想强调的是，我们不应该一味地等待技术创新和成熟。事实上，我们已经有很多成熟的技术，应该立即投入应用，”欧洲政策中心欧洲可持续发展项目负责人安妮卡·赫德伯格表示。
在4月8日《财富》杂志举办的虚拟论坛上，赫德伯格谈到了数字解决方案可能对发电、电力存储和分配方式带来的改变。近几十年来，全球电力消费增长稳定，但城市化、企业数字化、电力汽车和其他公用事业的蓬勃发展将带来新一轮的电力需求激增。
据麦肯锡预测，到2050年，电力占全球能源消耗的比重将从现在的19%增加至30%。与此同时，国际能源署预计，由于可再生能源发电成本远低于化石燃料，未来十年内，全球80%的电力将由可再生能源产生。
但就可持续性而言，使用可再生能源和电力也要面对一系列挑战。
英国伯明翰大学法学教授罗伯特·李在谈到锂这一类电池原料时说：“简单地用金属经济取代碳氢经济是非常危险的。”金属开采过程本身会产生大量污染，而废弃电池的妥善处理则是另一大迫在眉睫的难题。
欧盟已做好了处理废弃电池的准备，并于去年通过立法，要求电池制造商为每一块电池贴上唯一的数字“护照”标签，以便在整个产品生命周期内进行跟踪。李教授认为，护照计划是数字技术解决方案的契机。
“区块链技术允许你完整地跟踪产品，以确保废弃产品不会被运往一些发展中国家进行拆解，给当地造成巨大的环境和健康危害，”李教授说。
气候保护人士则对区块链技术，或者更准确地说，对加密货币挖矿嗤之以鼻，因为给区块链数据中心供电、维持其运转产生了污染。不过，华为技术有限公司公共事务战略副总裁勒内·阿诺德表示，数字化转型带来的整体益处将超过其所需的能源成本。
“信息通信技术和数字化的确比较特殊，在这一领域里，它所产生的间接减排效应实际上远大于直接意义上的单个能源影响，”阿诺德解释，这就意味着通过引入数字技术、提高效率而节省的能源可以抵消数字化消耗的能量。
能源供应商利用远程传感器和人工智能监测技术，监控电力需求，有效分配电力，即可实现这种“抵消效应”。
“如果我们能充分发掘信息通信技术的潜力，[数字化]将对环境产生积极影响，并帮助我们实现预定的气候目标，”阿诺德说。（财富中文网）
译者：胡萌琦
The worldwide push to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 will require advances in green technologies—particularly tech associated with renewable energy—but simply waiting for future tools to emerge isn’t a viable solution to climate change.
“I would like to argue that we should not just wait for these innovations and technologies to mature. We actually have a lot of already mature technology that we should be putting in place and deploying at the moment,” Annika Hedberg, head of sustainable prosperity for Europe programme at the European Policy Centre (EPC), said Thursday.
Hedberg was speaking during Fortune’s virtual conversation on how digital solutions can transform the way we generate, store, and distribute electricity. Global electricity consumption has grown steadily for decades, but the rise in urbanization, corporate digitalization, and the electrification of cars and other utilities will create a new surge in demand for electricity.
According to McKinsey, electricity will occupy 30% of the global demand for power by 2050—up from 19% today. Meanwhile the International Energy Agency (IEA) expects renewables to generate 80% of global electricity demand within the next decade, as the cost of renewable generation plummets below the cost of fossil fuels.
But in terms of sustainability, switching to renewable energy and electricity carries its own challenges.
“Clearly, there's a great danger that we simply replace a hydrocarbon-based economy…with a metal economy,” says Robert Lee, professor of law at the University of Birmingham in the U.K., referring to the metals that are required to make batteries, such as lithium. Mining those metals is a polluting process itself, and properly disposing of batteries at the end of their shelf life is a looming issue.
The European Union has already prepared to deal with the deluge of dead batteries and last year passed legislation requiring battery manufacturers to stamp each battery unit with a unique digital “passport” tag that allows the battery to be tracked throughout its lifetime. Lee sees the passport scheme as an opportunity for digital tech to provide a solution.
“Something like blockchain actually allows you to do that almost absolutely and track that product to make sure that product isn't ending up being broken down in some countries in the developing world where it's doing huge environmental and health damage,” Lee says.
Climate activists have scorned blockchain technology—or, specifically, cryptocurrency mining—for the pollution produced in order to power the data centers that sustain the blockchain. But René Arnold, vice president of public affairs strategy at Huawei Technologies, says that the overall benefits of digitalization will outweigh the cost of its energy demands.
“Information communication technology (ICT) and digitization is really one of the very few examples where you can see that the indirect abatement effect is actually far bigger than its individual energy impact is in a direct sense,” Arnold says, meaning that the energy saved by efficiencies introduced through digitalizing will offset the energy consumed by digitalization.
Such “abatement effects” would come from actions like energy suppliers utilizing remote sensors and A.I. oversight to monitor power demand and distribute electricity efficiently.
"If we use the potential that ICT provides us [then digitalization] will have a positive impact on the environment and help us achieve the climate targets we have set," Arnold says.
