Can the climate catastrophe still be averted? Yes - by turning from CO2 Zero to Sub-Zero – But we must act fast.

A commentary by Thomas Wu

We can only avert the climate catastrophe, if we finally utilize innovative technologies and unite global resources and interests. Geographical borders must no longer be a barrier in the fight against climate change, but multinational cooperation will be crucial to give the next generation a future.

Over one trillion US$ of damages are caused by extreme weather conditions over the last 4 years according to the insurance industry already. Never seen before hurricane damages are just an present example in recent years. Everybody everywhere experiences the consequences of climate change already - warmest winters ever, droughts, heatwaves, floods, and endless wildfires. We see damages to environment and human life in a never seen before dimension - particular in the Global South.

And this is only the beginning. Giga-size migration waves towards the Global North will be the consequence and will lead inevitably to social unrest and political instability in the western world. Just imagine millions of climate refugees from the South hitting the US and EU borders.

At the same time, we follow overpriced, insufficient, and inefficient solutions. Inflation, lack of resources, insufficient supply chains, and inability to finance non-feasible solutions are major roadblocks to transformation. And these issues are paired with self-serving trade restrictions, lack of solidarity, lack of foresight, protectionism, most importantly missing ability to align the key stakeholders in our political and economic landscape leading to an irresponsible lack of implementation ability.

More importantly, this lack of ability by our stakeholders causes a growing public disinterest and indifference. COP28 was barely noticed by the global public, as the number of publications about the event shows. Worse still, inflation, economic downturn and the fear of losing today's standard of living are leading to growing mistrust and aversion to climate policy and measures among the western population.

The world must start to think outside the box finally, create new alliances and start to align capabilities, resources, and technical knowledge to overcome this human threating crises.

There is no doubt that the green energy resources are along the global south. These resources, which are the only viable feedstock, are vital to supply the world with fossil free energy. Generating this energy on an industrial scale outside the “sunbelt” is inefficient, a waste of resources, and in most cases a total waste of tax-payers money. Therefore, it is of the essence that the governments and multinational companies start to act responsibly and in a cooperative way – having the greater good in mind and being open to new technologies.

Concentration on climate positive energy carriers

There is no doubt that Hydrogen is the key to transformation worldwide. And I do not want to repeat arguments for a Hydrogen based transition.

However, how do we produce Hydrogen on an industrial scale economically? How do we transport it? And how do we distribute it worldwide? – questions, still not answered in a feasible way yet. It must be clear transition can only happen in the scale required if we manage to produce CO2 free Hydrogen for less than USD 1.5/kg Hydrogen.

With current technical concepts starting from PEM Electrolysis, SOEC, and hybrid power plants using PV and Wind, we are many miles aways from this target and the likelihood that these technologies will be ever feasible without significant public subsidies is close to Zero. Current estimates show, that the production costs of Hydrogen are beyond USD 5/kg Hydrogen in the western world - this can't be the way to make the transition happen. New solutions are a must.

In addition, transporting Hydrogen in its natural form is inefficient, very expensive, and a potential threat for public safety. Current tragic incidents in China have shown, how difficult it is to control the risks of producing and transporting Hydrogen. ?Attempts to transport Hydrogen via Liquifying or going the route via Ammonia have shown everywhere that the true costs are way beyond any reasonable feasibility. It is a dead end.

aMethanol is the answer.

aMethanol is the only energy carrier which can be produced in giga-size plants with proven technology, is bankable without taxpayers’ money, is very cost competitive, safe, very easy to transport, and is CO2 negative. It is the only green energy carrier which can be produced climate positive, meaning more CO2 will be absorbed in the production process than emitted during the combustion. In other words, with each mile you go on the street with aMethanol, you reduce the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere (about 38g CO2 reduction per mile). It is the only climate positive carrier which can be produced for less than 1.9 US$/gallon. It is the only carrier which can be introduced immediately without further investments in the current storage, transport, and distribution infrastructure. Additionally, aMethanol can be blended in current fossil energy carriers to have immediate significant CO2 reduction (>35%) among today’s combustion engine fleets. It is an ideal energy carrier for the automotive, aviation, and shipping industry worldwide.

Implementing the above protocols, we would not simply limit the CO2 emissions, but actively reduce CO2 in the atmosphere by using this unique energy carrier. Science has shown clearly that only constant utilization of innovative technologies will enable us to enhance the reduction of CO2!

The question becomes: Can we finally unite our world to do what is needed to accomplish?this?together?

Stay tuned – my next commentary.

Thank you for reading! In my next commentary I will elucidate on the future of global mobility.

Please feel free to send comments, suggestions, questions.

All the best

Thomas Wu

[email protected]