World climate change experts observe that carbon emission is a major cause of the climatic havoc in the world today ranging from floods, typhoons, Tsunamis, fires, and floods. Experts predict that more harm if the current destruction continues and the human kind is at risk. Global Thermostat (GT) gives a promising solution to eliminate carbon dioxide in the air attributed to climatic changes using an intensive technology. Success of GT will revolutionize the energy industry by providing effective and low-cost technology to extract Carbon dioxide from industries. The technology will also be used by heat intensive industries to make their operations more eco-friendly.
What will it take to grow Global Thermostat?
Global Thermostat growth and success will be dependent on buy in from the various stakeholders in the society. GT will require government to mobilize, educate citizens, convince the private sector to change ways of doing business, and persuade the political class to support their technology. GT business model should also be able generate revenues and make profits to support their operations and avoid over reliance on the government and donors to sustain their innovative solutions.
What technological challenges will it face as it grows and what barriers will it need to overcome for this technology to be successful?
One of the main challenges GT is facing is to change the prevailing customer’s perception about the effectiveness of the carbon capture technology. Socolow on behalf of the American Physical Society has critiqued the effectiveness of GT technology citing it as hopeless and expensive. The critique has impeded GT from making further investments and made it more difficult for them to raise money to support their operations.
Innovation is difficult to promote especially for conservative industries that are risk averse and reluctant to deploy huge amounts of capital. Marketing GT technology is noted as a challenge. The investment community still needs enlightening on the potential the carbon market offers.GT will need institutional investors and strategic investors to realize their vision.
The shift by the power generation industry from oil as a preferred fuel to use of natural gases will make emission-trading market narrow for GT to invest. As companies opt for green energy sources such as wind power, solar energy, and bio fuels there is possibility for reluctance by the government and other regulators to impose the carbon emission limits.
4. Who should bear the primary responsibility for reducing CO2 emissions - rich countries or poor countries? What role should industry play?
The responsibility of reducing CO2 emission lies with both the rich and the poor countries. The rich countries like the USA and China however, bear a greater responsibility as they account for the greatest carbon gas emission to the atmosphere. The US has the largest energy grid system in the world with part of the energy obtained from coal plants that burn 24 hours. China’s industrial and population growth has also put pressure on the world energy requirements.
What will it take for a successful industry like the energy industry to change?
A market solution will be more instrumental in changing the energy industry compared to the regulation by governments or concerned institutions. With available technologies such as the one proposed by GT, the energy industry will be able to commercialize the carbon produced in their plants. Commercialization will encourage the sector to adopt the technology for profit purpose at the same time being able to reduce the carbon emission to the environment.
