What will it take to achieve a climate-neutral energy system?

From a technological and economic perspective, the Swiss energy system could be climate-neutral by 2050. There are various challenges when it comes to implementation, however. Deployment of photovoltaics, for example, would have to increase at a faster rate. Academia and industry discussed possible energy scenarios at ETH Zurich.

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  • Richard Piggin09.12.2021 13:29

    The ETH Energy Group sits at the junction of Politics, Science, Economics and Public Opinion, so MUST take a leading role in the Swiss effort to fight Climate Change; what other useful purpose can it serve ? It is now accepted that urgent action must be taken, but - from the 50+ private-jets used for the recent Glasgow COP26 conference - evidently public leaders still favour handwaving to serious action. This imposes even-greater responsibility on academic Energy Groups to generate and publicise strong initiatives based on Science & Economics. I have purposely waited several days to see others’ comments on this Symposium, in order to gauge the interest shown; sadly, there have been none, which maybe indicates a lack of impact ? Major Swiss winter electricity shortages have already been predicted for 2025 onwards by AXPO (see website) and in the press (NZZ et al), but only one speaker addressed this huge immediate problem with an apologetic prediction/model of shortages circa 2040 ! …. hardly a realistic large-scale science-based action-plan … and nuclear-electricity was not even mentioned ! In the parallel Covid crisis, Dr. Fauci has maintained a courageously consistent position in spite of vicious attacks, contrasting his colleague Dr. Birx, who dared not speak up even when Trump was advocating the use of household bleach ! So is ETH Energy Group going to be Dr. Fauci or Dr. Birx in “loudly speaking truth to power”? Meantime, our planet is dying ...