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In discussing energy, we need to take into account the environmental impact

that all forms of energy production and use inevitably have. There are two main forms of
environmentally impact that need to be taken into consideration. One is the impact on the local
environment, on the neighborhood, on the region where energy is produced and utilized, and
the other is the impact on the global environment that is on the climate. The impact on the
climate is linked to emissions of greenhouse gases that have the effect of increasing the
temperature, the average temperature of the globe. Our objective is to limit the increase in
average temperature to less than 1.5 degrees centigrade. As we can see from this first slide,
this first graph, the emissions of greenhouse gases have been increasing almost systematically.
This is a source of great concern because our objective is to bring emissions of greenhouse
gases to zero, and in some scenarios according to some scientists, even to negative. This
constitutes a great challenge. The most important component of greenhouse gas emissions is
CO2 emissions, which are produced when burning fossil fuels. But we should not forget
emissions of methane, CH4, which is the light blue segment in this graph. These are also
closely related to energy production. As we can see in the next graph, energy production and
use is not the only source of emissions. We also have to take into account, emissions from
agriculture and land use. They account for about 25 percent of the total, and they are extremely
difficult to reduce or contain. Another 20 percent approximately comes from either transport or
buildings. Transport means cars, trucks, airplanes, ships, all of it. It is also very difficult to
reduce emissions from transport. Buildings means primarily heating, cooking, and in hot climate,
for air conditioning. Then, we have another 20 percent approximately, which is accounted for by
industry. Industry is a very important, of course, sector and it will be very difficult to contain the
use of energy in industry because heating is an essential component. Heat is an essential
component of many industrial processes, and it is very difficult to reduce, but the rest comes
from energy. So the bulk, 75 percent of emissions comes from energy, and it is divided in
several sections. One, the most important one, 25 percent of the total is power generation,
electricity generation. That accounts for 25 percent of total global greenhouse gas emissions.
So reducing, decarbonizing power generation is an obviously important target. When we look
specifically at the 25 percent, which is accountable for power generation, we note that electricity
is itself used primarily in industry and in buildings. So it is necessary to decarbonized electricity
and also perhaps to reduce the consumption of electricity in these two main sectors. Very little
electricity is consumed in transport, and very little is consumed also in agriculture. When we
speak about the different fossil fuels, we have to keep in mind that there is a major difference in
between them. By far, the most important source of emissions is coal. Coal accounts for about
close to 50 percent of total emissions in 2017. It is followed by oil, which however produces
much more energy than coal in total, and by gas, which has much less damaging in terms of
generating greenhouse gas emissions. This reflects a fact that the production, the emissions per
unit of energy produced are substantially different between natural gas and coal, especially the
dirtiest forms of coal which are lignite or peat. Natural gas produces approximately half the
emissions of coal per unit of energy produced. So there is a major advantage in shifting from
coal to gas. In considering the local impact of energy production in use, which is in many ways
no less important than the global impact, we have to keep in mind that there is no form of
energy that has no impact. All of them have some impact on the immediate environment, and
people are very sensitive to this impact, and they react, and policies therefore are frequently
designed to address primarily the local impact. The local impact can be especially bad for some
sources that are normally considered as preferable such as wood, which may be renewable, but
when it is burned, generates fumes and local pollution that is very damaging to health. Local
emissions are especially bad for coal, although this can be, to some extent, remedied by
installing filters and scrubbers into coal power plant. But there is an impact also of other sources
that are normally considered clean, such as hydro, which affects their natural regime of rivers
and also creates flooding that may affect the local population, requiring people to be moved to
different places. There is an impact of nuclear, potential impacts of nuclear because of the
danger of contamination and radiation. Even for such a quintessentially clean sources, wind
power, there have been complaints about noise, about damage to birds, and other potential
damages. So we have to keep in mind that there is no free lunch. There is no source of energy
that has no impact on the environment, and we need to make a reasoned decision about what
kind of impact we are ready to tolerate and what is less desirable.