Some 200 cities in the United States are set to fall short of their goals when it comes to transitioning to 100% renewable energy by 2050, a study has found.
The report, published in IOP Publishing’s journal Environmental Research: Infrastructure and Sustainability, found that by the mid part of the decade, gas is set to remain the primary source of energy in the United States, given that current infrastructure plans for implementing renewable energy are unlikely to meet required needs.
According to recent projections, renewable energy generation will need to triple in the coming years to meet even a 45% share of energy production.
In numerous cases, renewable energy serves as a supplementary source to address increasing energy demands rather than functioning solely as a transitional tool away from fossil fuels, the study found.
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City pledges
Researchers from Baylor University analysed a cross-section of US cities, such as Boston, Washington D.C., Salt Lake City, Columbia, and San Diego, which have pledged to transition to fully renewable energy sources by 2050.
The findings indicate that these cities are projected to achieve only 10% of their renewable energy targets over the next 30 years.
The study offers perspective on city-level energy consumption using an ‘energyshed’ framework. An energyshed framework encompasses a geographic area’s land, infrastructure, population, economic aspects, and environmental impacts, illustrating how these components influence energy consumption.
Conflicting sustainability goals
“The energyshed method shows that while the need for this transition is clear, the best pathways to achieve it are greatly debated,” commented Dr Kayla Garrett, author of the study and Postdoctoral Fellow in Environmental Science at Baylor University.
“Many areas are faced with conflicting sustainability goals such as changes to infrastructure, energy storage, land and resource use, biodiversity, economic development, and more. This can lead to ‘analysis paralysis’ which is one of the major blockers for decisive action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”
Garrett added that conversations will need to be had between “those who apply the market approach to supply and demand versus those with sociopolitical approaches”.
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