Can one technology solution possibly address climate change? Inês Azevedo, associate professor at the Department of Engineering and Public Policy and co-Director for the Climate and Energy Decision Making (CEDM) Center at Carnegie Mellon University explains.

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The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Working Group III: Mitigation of Climate Change

Responding to Climate Change from NASA.gov

Climate Change Mitigation from the National Climate Assessment

Transcript

HOST: Have you ever wondered if there is one single technology or strategy that could solve the challenges posed by climate change? On this week’s Energy Bite, Ines Azevedo, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, has some answers.

AZEVEDO: No, there is really not. We’ll need to use an “all of the above” energy strategy for how we produce and use electricity and power our vehicles.

HOST: What would this strategy include?

AZEVEDO: For electricity, this means improving the efficiency with which we use energy in our homes, business and industry, and in our vehicles. We will also need to increase the amount of renewable energy sources like wind and solar power as well as nuclear.

Our use of fossil fuels like coal and natural gas will continue. We’ll need to use upcoming technologies like carbon capture, though, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from these sources.

Finally, climate change is a global issue, and we’ll need to work with other countries so emissions are reduced globally. Just as there is no one technical solution, no one country can solve climate change on its own.

HOST: Do you have a favorite technology for reducing greenhouse gas emissions? Take our poll, see the results, and ask your energy questions at Energy Bite dot org.

ANNOUNCER: Energy Bite is a co-production between 90.5 WESA and Carnegie Mellon’s’ Scott Institute for Energy Innovation.