Author: Badri Narayanan Gopalakrishnan
Energy Review, Vol 5. Issue 05. 2023
Globally, there has been a lot of initiatives, discussions, debates and efforts on decarbonization and net zero transition. In this context, the technological, economic and measurement aspects of the various energy sources and definition of “green” sources among them has been a major scientific challenge. One should not only consider the emissions at the point of production or consumption or storage of the energy type, but all of them and the entire life cycle. Furthermore, there is so much heterogeneity when it comes to the emissions intensity of even similar energy sources across the countries, for example depending on the grade of coal used in thermal power. Concise definitions and global standards need to be developed on these definitions at a granular level, to be able to track and facilitate the process of net zero transition across the world. This would not only help give credit to where it is due and also generate reasonable expectations on what to target in different geographies and sectors.
Dr. Badri Narayanan Gopalakrishnan is Advisor with Energy Review