Decarbonization as a Means of Combating Climate Warming and the Problems of “Green” Energy
The article analyzes the current efforts to combat climate warming by moving towards the ultimate goal announced by many countries as the complete decarbonization of their economies by 2050. The main trends in reducing harmful effects on the natural environment by replacing fossil fuels with renewable and environmentally friendly (“green”) sources — hydrogen, wind, solar, and water energy are considered. Promising developments of atomic energy in this context are also described. The state of affairs in the field of thermonuclear power plants is noted. It is shown that “green” energy sources, in the strict sense, do not exist today, and the designated ways to achieve zero emission of harmful substances are quite contradictory and therefore look difficult to implement so far. At the same time, it was noted that it is vital to develop “green” energy not only from the point of view of nature protection, but also due to the fact that traditional fossil energy sources will sooner or later be exhausted. It is indicated which problems will need to be solved. It is shown that there are a lot of them and they are very complex. It is concluded that the level of modern technologies and the ideas existing here let to suggest that carbon fuel as a primary energy source will remain in demand by 2050. And since the achievement of decarbonization is also associated with problems whose solutions have not yet been found or tested in practice, the path in this direction is likely to be longer.