Renewables to beat air pollution
Today world is celebrating the World Environment Day 2019 under the topic #BeatAirPollution, chosen by this year’s host, China; this theme invites us all to consider how we can change our everyday lives to reduce the amount of air pollution we produce.
Air pollution kills an estimated 7 million people worldwide every year. The World Health Organization (WHO) data shows that 9 out of 10 people breath air containing high levels of pollutants.
The findings of a recent report from the WHO underline the need of new regulations, renewable energy technologies and sustainable transportation to cut particulate matter emissions and improve the health of the world’s population, especially of those living in countries with low- and middle-income.
Time to make smarter a greener choices
The energy choices society are making now are critical to determining our health and but also our planet’s health in a future. It’s time to think global by acting locally.
To improve the planet’s air quality, the health of its inhabitants, and its ecosystem, we need to adopt policies that will control local emissions and increase the use of technologies aimed to provide a global sustainable energy. Energy transition and electrification is key to improve air quality and minimize global warming.
National and local policymakers and key players need to put in place strategies that will crack down on air pollutants locally while helping to fight climate change globally.
The European Environment Agency shows that renewable energy helped Europe to cut greenhouse gas emissions by about 10% in 2015. According to the International Renewable Energy Agency, global CO2 emissions from the energy sector could be reduced by 70% by 2050 and entirely phased-out by 2060 thanks to renewables.
In Europe, the Juncker Commission’s Energy Union project set out to give EU consumers secure, sustainable, competitive and affordable energy by overhauling Europe’s energy and climate policies. It also committed to making the EU the world leader on renewable energy, to placing energy efficiency first and to continuing to lead global efforts to fight climate change. Four years on, the Energy Union is a reality.
The implementation of several Energy Union policies makes these emissions reductions easier and less costly to achieve. Thanks to joint efforts by the EU and Member States, emissions of air pollutants have decreased in the EU in recent decades. This trend has contributed to better air quality. It has also led to a decrease in the number of air quality zones exceeding EU limit values for particulate matter, and a decrease in the estimated number of premature deaths due to air pollution, to around 400 000 in the latest estimates. Emissions of air pollutants in the EU are projected to continue decreasing, as Member States implement measures to fulfil their national commitments on reductions in emissions of pollutants for 2020 and 2030 onwards.
CROSSBOW beats air pollution
CROSSBOW project provides a range of products and services to foster a higher penetration of Renewable Energy Resources in the energy markets, leveraging disruptive energy storage approaches to support the process in South Eastern Europe. This will facilitate the sustainable development of the future energy model, which should be designed in such a way to ensure the cooperation between countries for RES integration seamlessly across Europe.
Once ended, this Horizon 2020 will contribute to save 3 MTons of GHG and to increase of 10% in the share of RES (15,2 TWh), but also to create more the 70.000 green jobs and to give access to better quality energy services of 56.831.418 citizens and businesses.