The Key Technologies for Winning the Fight Against Climate Change, According to IDTechEx

BOSTON, April 21, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Each year, April 22nd marks Earth Day, a worldwide event that aims to diversify, educate and activate the environmental movement. Since the first Earth Day in 1970, activists across the world have used the occasion to push for an increased awareness over environmental issues and lobby for policy changes.

The theme of this year's Earth Day is "Restore Our Earth", with the event focusing on natural processes, emerging green technologies and innovative thinking that can restore the world's ecosystems. The climax of the event, the Earth Day Live digital event, will coincide with the Biden Administration's global climate summit, where world leaders will meet to discuss the need to take stronger action on climate change ahead of the United Nations Climate Change Conference this November in Glasgow.

Technology could play a key role in the fight against climate change. The continuing growth of electric vehicles and renewable energy is helping to wean the world off fossil fuels while emerging fields such as carbon capture, utilization and storage, and negative emissions technologies could even help reverse decades of emissions. To mark Earth Day 2021, here are some of the technologies that IDTechEx believes will be instrumental in winning the fight against climate change.

Electric Vehicles

Electric car markets soared in 2020, growing over 40% year-on-year. IDTechEx expects growth to continue for the next two decades. But this begs the question - why are electric vehicles so immune to COVID-19? In short, industrial policy.

The sheer volume of the global car market - some 78 million sales globally in 2020 (LMC Automotive) - means passenger vehicles account for the lion's share of CO₂ emissions from transportation (45% in 2018, IEA). As a result, passenger cars are a key part of green transport policy coming into place to address new climate goals. Often, industrial policy is technology agnostic. For example, an automaker can choose to reach an emissions target in any way possible, from improving the efficiency of an internal combustion engine to alternative liquid fuels. But, in practice, battery-electric vehicles offer the lowest-emission solution for the lowest cost in most mobility sectors and are the endgame.