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A good reminder to everyone that global CO2 emissions are higher than they have ever been [0]. Again: 2024 was the mos polluting year in history. A lot of feel

A good reminder to everyone that global CO2 emissions are higher than they have ever been [0]. Again: 2024 was the mos polluting year in history. A lot of feel-good articles and tweets will often talk about the plummeting costs of solar, or how the share of renewables is higher than ever, or stuff like that, which is, from a global warming point of view, absolutely irrelevant. The only thing that matters as far as warming is concerned is how much CO2 is there in the air. The cumulative number. It doesn't matter if the growth is slowing, it doesn't matter if there's more solar than ever, etc etc. So yeah, we're producing more clean energy than ever, but we're also using more carbon than ever. [0]: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/annual-co2-emissions-per-country?country=~OWID_WRL https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/annual-co2-emissions-per-...

faeriechangling 2y ago
I saw the point of things of the carbon tax as flattening a plateau more than stopping co2 emission growth. I never really had any delusions about that being politically viable, I can't even convince most around me that it's worth it to put a price on carbon that is several times less than its actual impact on the environment and economy.
ec109685 2y ago
The slope of new clean energy coming online is also important. A company may be losing money today, but if they are growing revenue on a path to profitability, that is what ultimately matters.
- elbasti 2y ago
  No. You're right about the company case: when you look at a company, you only care about its profit today (and in the future). You don't really care about how much money it spent to get here. But for purposes of global warming, you care about the total amount of carbon in the air. The cumulative sum. The integral. If a company becomes profitable today, it survives. If emissions were to magically stop today...warming continues!

faeriechangling 2y ago

I saw the point of things of the carbon tax as flattening a plateau more than stopping co2 emission growth. I never really had any delusions about that being politically viable, I can't even convince most around me that it's worth it to put a price on carbon that is several times less than its actual impact on the environment and economy.

ec109685 2y ago

The slope of new clean energy coming online is also important. A company may be losing money today, but if they are growing revenue on a path to profitability, that is what ultimately matters.

elbasti 2y ago
No. You're right about the company case: when you look at a company, you only care about its profit today (and in the future). You don't really care about how much money it spent to get here. But for purposes of global warming, you care about the total amount of carbon in the air. The cumulative sum. The integral. If a company becomes profitable today, it survives. If emissions were to magically stop today...warming continues!