Green technologies and their importance
ITAPA Green looks at technologies for a sustainable future through the lens of climate change and economic reality. The starting point is the respected, data-based conclusions of the IPCC, which provide a framework for choosing strategies. The goal is to pragmatically show what technologies can do for mitigation and adaptation – for businesses, local governments, and the state. The IPCC works with open, measured data, and its charts outline the evolution of environmental parameters, such as temperature or sea level. The key is the energy balance: how much radiation the Earth retains, expressed in watts per square meter. In its natural state the planet maintains approximately 240 W/m²; since the industrial era roughly +2,6 W/m² has been added, a small fraction more, yet globally significant. Energy that is not converted into work is converted into heat – hence the planet warms. Different development trajectories are described by the SSP acronyms and numbers 1,9 to 8,5 W/m², which express how much energy retention may further increase. SSP5 represents growth based on fossil fuels: it brings the greatest climate impact, but also resources for adaptation. SSP3 describes a world of trade barriers and technological constraints, SSP4 uneven growth in which clean tech is expensive and crowds out economic activity. SSP1 is a sustainable scenario in the spirit of the Green Deal, combining growth and the deployment of green technologies; the middle path SSP2 did not appear in the overview mentioned.What the data say: Energy and future scenarios
