Community must act now to zero net carbon

by Louis Schwartzkopf, Ph.D.

Kudos to The Mankato Free Press for its May 16 editorial, in which it notes that the extreme weather in our region and the country this spring is another indication that our climate is changing and exhorts our policymakers to pick up the pace in fighting climate change.

Climate change isn’t going away. The biggest driver is carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from burning fossil fuels. The more carbon dioxide we put into the atmosphere, the more violent and erratic our weather will be. Once the carbon dioxide is in the atmosphere, it stays there for centuries, until natural processes pull it out. This means that the weird weather we are having is already baked in for a long time to come and will only get worse, until we reduce our greenhouse gas emissions to zero.

There is some good news on this front. In January the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency submitted its biennial report tracking Minnesota’s greenhouse gas emissions to the Legislature. The report shows a decline in emissions across all sectors of the economy of 23% from 2005 to 2020. It also shows that Minnesota is on track to meet its reduction goal of 30% by 2025.

This decline is due primarily to emissions reductions in the electricity generation sector of the economy. Since 2005, emissions from this sector have dropped by 54%, largely by shifting the production of electricity from coal to wind and solar.

Over half the electricity we use in Minnesota today comes from carbon-free sources. Building on this success, the Legislature this session passed the “100% clean electricity by 2040” bill, which became law upon the governor’s signature. This law requires all utilities in Minnesota to meet the 100% goal.

Despite these advances, we still have a long way to go. Climate scientists tell us that we have to cut our emissions in half by 2030 and reduce them to zero by 2050 to reduce the worst effects of climate change. A strategy is taking shape nationally for the next steps: electrify everything.

At the same time that the utilities are moving down the path to 100% clean electricity, we must electrify the transportation sector by replacing gasoline- and diesel-powered cars and trucks with electric vehicles, and electrify residential and commercial buildings by replacing furnaces and boilers with heat pumps. Heat pumps efficiently heat buildings in the winter and cool them in the summer.

The challenge is that electrification means we’ll need more electricity. Buildings will need to be made energy efficient, and the grid will have to be bolstered and made more resilient.

What can we do in the Greater Mankato area?

First, we must educate ourselves about electrification and the clean energy transition and be open to change. A good place to start is to watch the hour-long NOVA program "Chasing Carbon Zero", which shows how electrification is currently being deployed in the United States to get to net carbon zero.

Second, community leaders must come together and plan how best to move the deployment of electric vehicles and heat pumps. The envisioning project Greater Mankato 2040 is a good place to start.

Third, Mankato and other cities in the region must plan the infrastructure for electric vehicle charging stations and set up policies promoting heat pumps. Additional city staff will be necessary for this work, and city councils will need to support funding for them.

This will be a huge undertaking, but we have no choice. We should look at electrification, efficiency and infrastructure as an enormous opportunity for area businesses and workers that will directly benefit the local economy.

Failure to act condemns our children and grandchildren to life on an increasingly inhospitable Earth of excess heat and catastrophic weather events for centuries to come. We owe it to them to move with all deliberate speed.

We have 27 years — a generation — to reach the 2050 goal. It’s time to proceed down the path of electrification. With persistence, money and resources we can do this. But we need to start now.

Louis Schwartzkopf is a retired physics professor, a member of the executive board of the Southcentral Minnesota Clean Energy Council and the author of the Citywide Greenhouse Gas Inventory referenced on the Sustainability page of the city of Mankato website.