To tackle climate change a low carbon transition will have to happen. It wasn't that long ago that people thought that such a transition would happen on it's own. The bad news for that line of argument is that fossil fuel supplies have increased, not decreased.
Nevertheless, the world IS on a path to a low-carbon future, but there are big questions regarding whether it will happen fast enought to avoid catastrophic climate change. Such transitions have generally taken quite a while to occur.
Today there are lots of questions when it comes to a low carbon transition to mitigate climate change:
- How quickly can it happen?
- What levels of carbon pricing would be required?
- Will it be 100% renewable energy based?
- How big a part will nuclear energy play?
- Can the transition happen without on its own, without policies and measures to drive it?
These and other topics can be explored in depth through this Module of Your Climate Change PhD.