Who Won the U.S. Presidential Debate?

Holding the increase in the average global temperature to less than 2ºC above pre-industrial levels and limiting this increase to 1.5ºC is the challenge that 190 countries signed in the Paris Agreement for the year 2050. To make this possible, each state must present national plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and ensure that they are updated every five years.

These plans are based on the results of the so-called "integrated assessment models." These mathematical models make it possible to simulate possible future scenarios and their consequences due to climate change.

According to these models, the scenarios compatible with the objectives set in Paris all require a substantial increase in the implementation of clean energy technologies. Now, a study led by the Universitat Rovira i Virgili and Imperial College London has called into question the possibility of reaching the current aims in terms of renewable energies.

The research team claims that current integrated assessment models do not take into account the amount of material needed to manufacture some of the essential technologies for the energy transition, such as batteries, wind turbines or solar panels.

According to this research, this means that the forecasts of these models are too "optimistic" considering everything that the development of these technologies entails. And they give an example: achieving these forecasts requires a 571- and 531-fold increase in the demand for selenium and gallium, respectively, in the next 30 years, something that the research team believes to be unfeasible.

• Read More