Global Youth Science Partnership – How to Ensure Sustainability in Renewable Energy
Greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere continue to rise at record levels; thus, the pace of the transition to renewables must be accelerated. Yet, at the same time, it is critical to ensure that renewable energy is truly environmentally and socially sustainable – from production and usage to end of life. Any environmental and social externalities present within the lifecycle of renewable energy systems cannot be ignored. Incorporating circular economy principles into the energy transition will allow us to achieve net-zero emissions more sustainably. Now is the time to consider how to ensure that renewable energy systems are designed to responsibly source materials, to remain efficiently operating for as long as possible, to be disassembled and recycled/repurposed easily, and to account for any resulting waste, and more.
In this session, organized by a Youth Partner from the Global Council for Science and the Environment’s (GCSE) Global Youth Science Partnership (GYSP), experts from Imperial College London will present the current state of the renewable energy sector globally and what are the challenges it is facing now and will be facing in the next decade or so; share the principles behind the emerging vision of circular economy; and discuss how incorporating circularity into the renewables sector would help ensure its sustainability going forward, through presentations and a Q&A discussion.
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