COP26: IS IT DOOM AND GLOOM?
Have you been following the COP26 conference in Glasgow? Are you disappointed with the outcome? Cheer up the future could be bright due to the amazing work being done through STEM.
What was COP26?
The 26th Conference Of Parties (COP26) was the United Nations Climate Change Conference (UNCCC) held in Glasgow, Scotland, UK. The conference aimed at bringing together over 200 countries to ratify an agreement on global targets for climate change updating both the existing Kyoto Protocol (1999) and the Paris climate agreement (2016). The main target of COP26 was for nation-states to commit to an agreement limiting global average temperature rises below 1.5*C.
The Spanner in the Works
During the conference it was expected that all participating countries would sign the agreement promising to work towards the elimination of coal for energy production. At the last minute, India and China pushed for a rewording of ‘phase out’ to ‘phase down’. Some were left disappointed seeing this as a way for some countries to worm out of their obligations. However, the climate issue won’t be solved through a silver bullet but small incremental steps in many areas are needed.
The Future is Bright
This week I watched an amazing report from the University Of West England (UWE) in which they are developing fuel cell technology powered by human and animal waste. Whereas the majority of of current battery technology is based on chemistry UWE is proposing biological battery technology. Unfortunately, this technology is unlikely to power your electric car or realistically charge your smartphone due to a lack of energy density and possible voltage production.
According to the experts at UWE the maximum voltage per cell is 1.1V and when a load is placed on the circuit it is realistically possible to reach 0.5V. However, many cells can be combined to produce useful voltages. This might take a large amount of space, which is why the experts at UWE predict its immediate commercial application would be in waste treatment facilities, where it might reduce a nations electrical power demand by 1-2%. In less developed areas this might be enough to provide sufficient power for the whole community.
In terms of waste management, this technology coupled with other systems such as methane recovery could represent a significant improvement in using waste products and moving us to a circular economy, where outputs are recycled back into inputs.
Watch the video:
What do you think? Can we reach a circular economy? What other advances are you excited about? Write a comment.
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Nice article! It’s important to remember progress is a marathon of small steps and setbacks, not leaps and bounds to an easy future.