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José MarÃa Baldasano Recio has an extensive curriculum. Let’s see it. He has a degree (1973) and a PhD (1983) in Chemistry from the University of Barcelona. He is a Chemical Engineer (1976) from the Institut National Polytechnique de Toulouse (France) and Master of Science in Chemical Engineering (1979) from the University of Sherbrooke (Québec, Canada).
He is Emeritus Professor of Environmental Engineering at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC). He was director of the Department of Engineering Projects of the UPC from May 2001 to November 2005 and director of the Institute of Applied Petrochemistry (IPA) from 1988 to 1991, which he transformed into the Institute of Technology and Environmental Modeling (ITEMA) from 1992 to 1997 .
He founded and directed the PhD program in Environmental Engineering between 1986-2006 (the first in Spain in this specialty), founded and co-directed the Master in Environmental Engineering between 2006-2011.
Its RD activities focus on air quality and climate change modelling, environmental impact studies and waste management. He has been founder and director of the Department of Earth Sciences at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC) in the period 2005-2014.
He has directed 33 doctoral theses. He is the author of 396 publications; 445 communications and 262 presentations in congresses, 110 conferences. And he is co-editor and author of 25 books on environmental issues. He has been co-chairman of five international conferences on environmental issues. He has been a reviewer in 61 scientific journals. And consultant and adviser to more than 90 companies and administrations.
He received the Rey Jaime I Prize for Environmental Protection, 1997, as well as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Diploma for his contribution to the Nobel Peace Prize, 2007. He is also a Numerary Member of the Royal European Academy of Doctors (RAED).
After this presentation, we get down to business: What are the main environmental problems of the planet?
The human being is the first and main problem, the species continues to grow and we are already 8000 million humans. We have already fulfilled the biblical mandate to grow and multiply. But having said that, at this moment the three big environmental problems we have are: the first is the current climate change, mainly due to the consumption of fossil fuels; the second is the loss of biodiversity, due to the use and occupation of the territory and the extraction of materials; and the third, complementary to the previous ones, is pollution both in urban environments and in the exploitation of resources.
Why is the problem of climate change so important and urgent?
The human species is in a stage that can be defined as “the civilization of fossil fuels”, which generates the externalization of the emission of greenhouse gases, mainly carbon dioxide, the famous CO2. The climate system responds to a process of exponential evolution and normally we apply proportionality. Exponential means that it evolves slowly at first, the effects do not occur intensively, until, at a certain moment, the process changes slope, accelerates and shoots up vertically.
The processes that condition the functioning of the climate system, both at the level of the atmosphere, the terrestrial surface and the oceans, etc., work in a coordinated way, they are all interrelated. Processes that when forced respond by increasing their dynamics, is what we call “positive feedback”, and they are the majority. There are also processes that are damped and we call them “negative feedback”, but they are minority.
At this time, all the climate indicators used for monitoring are on alarm, giving warnings about the accelerated evolution of the climate change situation.
There is a very clarifying fact, of the total CO2 emitted, 48% has remained in the atmosphere, the rest is in the oceans and on the earth’s soil. But, speaking in terms of the heat trapped since we started using fossil fuels with the steam engine in 1750, only 1% of the energy trapped is in the atmosphere, that’s what we call global warming, 90% is in the oceans and not only in the superficial layers, but also in depth, this is an indicator of the magnitude of the importance of this process, 4% has been used to melt the ice and the remaining 5% has been used to evaporate the terrestrial soil moisture.
At this moment we have much drier soils, which indicates the seriousness of the situation. I am not going to talk about droughts, heat waves, major floods, more intense tidal waves, etc… because unfortunately we are already in this scenario of major extreme weather events, which are already affecting a part very important part of the planet’s population, mainly those who live in coastal areas. Looking more at where we are, Barcelona-Mediterranean, the situation is that the Mediterranean has already warmed more than the global average for the planet and expectations are that it will lose 20% of precipitation in this century.
What should we do or what are we doing?
This leads us to a very complex reflection and it is what we do to stop the consumption of fossil fuels, which is the engine of our current model of society. At the same time, we have to know how to assess that, in the year 2020, 90% of the population already had electricity, which is very important and positive, because of what it means to improve the quality of life conditions that affect more than 7 billion individuals.
We are consuming huge amounts of fossil fuels and the current demand is dramatic, since we have to stop emitting CO2 now, and that implies stopping using them. If we had had this conversation 30 or even 20 years ago, the solution to the problem, being very complex and complicated, would have been more manageable. But today the solution is much more difficult and complex.
The electricity generation sector has already started on a fairly determined path to stop using coal, fuel oil and diesel and use natural gas and progressively implement wind mills and photovoltaic panels. At this time in Spain an important part of the electrical mix of the set of technologies used for the production of electricity are already based on renewable energies.
The transport sector emits 27% of the emissions, mainly due to cars followed by truck transport, followed by air transport and maritime transport. We have to electrify mobility and use it in a more intelligent way.
Another sector that is also significant in terms of emissions is the housing stock. We have to recondition them so that they have more suitable temperature and humidity conditions, reducing their emission.
The industrial sector has also been making its way towards decarbonization for years, they were using mainly diesel and many have switched to natural gas. The only sector that generates direct CO2 emissions by process and not only by energy is cement.
What can be done with cars?
The decarbonisation of cars is very complicated, as it represents a challenge that requires a complete modification of the existing model, which affects a world fleet of 1,300 million cars that are on the road. But we must be clear and be very aware that changing the type of engine is not a whim, but a necessity. CO2 is the urgent premise that conditions the entire process and many times in the debate on changing the type of vehicle the basic and fundamental premise is forgotten or simply left aside.
We must also bear in mind that heat engines are anything but efficient and, as a consequence, around 80% of the fuel they consume is wasted. The use of fossil fuels implies that in the year 2020 we have used 8 billion tons of coal, 4 billion cubic meters of natural gas and we are using more than 95 million barrels of oil per day. This represented an emission of 36.8 Gt (billion tons of CO2) in that year, and that year after year continues to rise.
The electrification of the vehicle already began more than 25 years ago, many people forget that the current hybrid car began to be marketed by Toyota in 1997, although the reason for hybrid technology was not to limit CO2 emissions, but rather to consume less fuel , because they have a battery between 1-1.5 kWh.
Synthetic fuels, biofuels and green hydrogen are more necessary in sectors that are difficult to electrify. The electric vehicle at the moment is a vehicle that works perfectly, with all the advantages and limitations that it has.
It already has a range of more than 400 km, but that is not enough for long intercity journeys, and it needs a network of important charging points, and that in the rest of Europe it goes at a faster installation speed than in Spain, It’s getting better though, but slowly. It is true that it has conditions and limitations. But we have been gas stations for 100 years, we have been electric stations for a little over five years, we must be consistent with the time scales.
Could you give us a summary?
The energy transition requires, for now, the urgent implementation on a global scale of renewable energies, but we must know how to better explain to citizens and the territory and its population, the need for its development. In the long term, the only solution is for nuclear fusion to finally be achieved, but that still represents an optimistic time horizon of more than 40 years.
If the human species is truly intelligent, we should know how to make this change lucidly, knowing that the model based on fossil fuels that has allowed us to reach a very high level of quality of life and technology and that we have been able to extend it to a significant percentage of the population. Although there is still a large forced margin for improvement for a greater balance and equity between the human population and in its relationship with the planet.
The current climate change means that the current socio-economic-energy model is already exhausted, it has helped us grow as a society, but with a severe externality, which is the emission of CO2 and other greenhouse gases. It is an accelerated climate change in time that is unprecedented in geological terms and therefore we should be smart to know how to make the model change as quickly as possible.
But as has always happened in history, the existing model refuses to die and the birth of the new model needs time to be born. It’s like when a child is born, you have to take care of it, you have to feed it, you have to help it. We are in an equivalent but basic situation for human civilization.
In addition, the human species is occupying the entire planet, exploiting its possibilities to the maximum and, therefore, the other species, as well as the planet, are being strongly pressured, we are also causing a very serious loss of biodiversity.
