My nation wants to enact a law that the CO2 emissions in 2030 have to be reduced by 49% relative to 1990.
Doesn't seem very realistic to me. 2030 is like tomorrow. And 28 years have already passed since 1990. The official statements are there:
https://www.government.nl/topics/climate-change/eu-policyThis whole CO2 obsession is a bit puzzling. There are so many other sources of pollution and contributors to the greenhouse effect. Why are we obsessing over CO2, and almost CO2 only?
And when are we going to pass laws to SEVERELY decrease fine particles emissions? In a lot of areas they are way over what's recommended for public health despite occasional measures that are definitely not leading to any significant improvement.
http://www.who.int/gho/phe/outdoor_air_pollution/en/Interestingly, water vapor is the largest contributor to the greenhouse effect by far. Human contribution to the concentration of water vapor in the atmosphere is still unclear, although it's currently believed to be only marginal. Would be interesting to study this in more details though IMO. It may be indeed marginal on a large scale, but I think it's not on a local basis. A lot of industrial plants, including nuclear power plants, emit large amounts of water vapor. But in a disney-ish world, water is harmless, right?
Regarding home heating, electrical heating is usually very inefficient. Only advanced electrical heating systems have decent efficiency, but then they are expensive and thus are not installed on a large scale. Most installed heaters are still piss-poor junk. Sure it's not directly emitting any gas, but what's the overall outcome? Everyone and their brother is claiming to get rid of nuclear power as well, yet all we are doing is leading to using more nuclear power. Go figure.
Anyway, just a few thoughts. Renewable is great but I still fail to see any project that has the potential to replace existing solutions. Total is making large investments in palm oil-based fuels. Is this the future of renewables?
*sigh*