We are currently locked into a ‘battle of the energy ecosystems.’ where our very existence is requiring one side to win, it simply must, renewable clean energy must be more dominant in all the investments we are making today and in the future.
This ecosystem battle is between those that are highly vested in the fossil-based energy supply system of today and those that are forcing change into a more renewable reliant energy system as quickly as possible. Stating a wish to move to renewables needs absolute clear, concrete, committed actions, backed up by demonstrable investments, away from fossil fuels.
In the energy transition, we require, we are pushing so much of the principles and theories of ecosystems to the maximum test in the outcomes we wish to achieve. The pathway to move from reliance on fossil fuel energy to renewables is long, complex, and fraught with risk. Yet the risks need to be taken.
We are determining our future planet and what defines a healthy ecosystem in a very ad-hoc, self-determining way. The ambitions of so many vested interests need fresh evaluations in any new socio-economic structure. We must bring these two competing energy views into a balance.
A balance that allows the planet to return to one where we, as humans, can be more in harmony with all that is around us, in the air we breathe, in sharing this earth in its diversity of resources, living creatures, and what it offers in natural wonder.
To drive change, as we must, in our energy system, we must challenge and reevaluate so many industrial and national policies, to be integrated into a new world order. We must determine who is capable of bringing this new order as I presently can’t see our existing global institutions are equipped or even mandated to enact this. We are failing to manage energy in this ecosystem way.
This energy transition is genuinely an ecosystem of epic proportions.
The energy (eco) system is not impacting many; it is affecting us all; we are all impacted. We do need to recognize that the energy transition, as its end product, electricity, is what we all have become highly dependent upon. Electricity is powering and linking into each of our economies, into our societies. Yet we are facing a stark choice for our earth.
Should we allow energy to continue in its current system, reliant on fossil fuels, old, inadequate energy systems, and infrastructure solutions? Or do we finally recognize, power solutions need to change radically into sources of energy, based more on renewables, that provide cleaner, more naturally sustaining environments based on wind, the sun, and natural conversion of water or the increased use of biomass?
The move towards renewables means a redesign of our energy source and supply systems to combine these different sources of energy; we have the chance to reverse the current crisis our world is facing; of rapid climate warming and significant degradation of the environment.
Of course, there is today a very popular “soundbite” of “we want to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all.” Yet to achieve this does mean we face one of the biggest challenges we will face up to in this century, or perhaps when you to look back, within any century. This energy transition is as big as it can get. The prize is a return to a planet we can live upon in healthy ways, not one of “affordable energy.”
Ecosystems can evolve naturally, given time, but we presently do not have the luxury of allowing one to develop we much (attempt) to manage this energy transition ecosystem and accelerate its evolution.
The entrenched fossil reliant energy system must migrate towards the clean energy future we urgently require, to allow for our planet to return to a balanced one.
If we as humans want to lead healthy lives, we do need this balance this with what this earth offers, to live alongside other creatures, plants, and in what nature provides, and value this completely different. It is not simply trying to extract or be the ultimate judge over parts of the ultimate ecosystem, we need to stop imposing just our needs.
Managing the energy transition is vital to that as it may be essential to our world, but its present byproduct is polluting or poisoning our planet’s environment with significant carbon emissions.
We need to provide a more sustainable future for all living things on this one planet of ours in the use of clean energy that does not burden or have an impact on our “living” system.
If we are going to complete the energy transition, the future energy systems must be all about “deep decarbonization” solutions, it must be based on clean renewable energy and this must come from new solutions and technological innovation breakthroughs but at a pace of unprecedented speed and scale. We have no time to lose it is a battle of changing our energy systems worldwide.
