As a result of human activity, the increasing concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is considered one of the greatest future risks, as scientific models indicate it raises atmospheric temperatures and thereby causes major changes around the world. For this reason, for example, the European Parliament has approved a climate law that raises the EU’s 2030 emissions reduction target from the previous 40% to 55%, and makes climate neutrality by 2050 a legally binding objective.
To achieve this goal, we can either return to the Stone Age or develop new technology. Finnish company Elementic has chosen the latter and is currently building a pilot plant based on its own innovation. In practice, this means producing a construction material similar to bricks, using lignin — the natural binder found in wood — as the key ingredient.
Since lignin makes up about one-third of wood, this would significantly increase the value of forests and allow the forest-based industry to grow without compromising the production of its current products. As an added bonus, carbon dioxide emissions from construction would disappear, as a house built from lignin bricks would store more carbon than is emitted during its construction.
To top it off, there are two more noteworthy advantages. First, production can be scaled up quickly by modernizing existing brick factories in Finland and elsewhere in Europe — there’s no need to build new production facilities for lignin bricks. Second, lignin as a building material is non-flammable, weather-resistant, and rot-proof.
It remains to be seen whether the Finnish company will succeed in selling its new product to construction firms — and whether, as a result, the EU’s goal of climate neutrality might be achieved much more easily than it seemed not long ago. In any case, it is already clear that the EU needs more innovations like the one described above to drive progress toward climate neutrality.
This seems so reasonable that I am sure the European Greens will be against it a 100%. "Can't you hear how a tree screams when it is felled down?"
ReplyDeleteAntibiotic resistance, AI at the hands of dictators, and energy poverty all sound serious issues compared to the known climate change. If I could choose and not be robbed or beheaded for looking wrong, I'd be living in a place that is +10C warmer than Southern Finland. I hardly see the direction and rate of change bad.
ReplyDeleteBut I can imagine how Russia invests on attack when we invest on carbon footprints.
Climate started to gain traction in 1986 or so. We had 10 to 15 years then to "fundamentally change the society'.
If you look at the emissions development and the Keeling curve now, you see practically nothing has been done, but the cost of the project is measured in trillions.
'climate law that raises the EU’s 2030 emissions reduction target from the previous 40% to 55%'
I wonder if Putin is egging them? It works for him, surely. Invest on defence instead.