Business Essay On Climate Change.

The Electricity Sector

Climate change can be regarded as the is a change in the temperature and the pattern of weather. These changes can be because of natural reasons, because of the changes in the solar cycle, and the others reason can be man-made. The changes in the climate started after the 1800s, and the reasons are related to human activities, it has been the main driver to change in the climate, specifically because of the burning of fossil fuels, like oil, and coal (Change, 2017). 

The emission of Greenhouse gases helps in trapping the heat and makes the temperature of the earth rise, as a result of which the climate changes. Human activities can be made responsible for the increase in greenhouse gases for the last 150 years. The largest source of greenhouse gas comes from the burning of fossil fuels to produce heat and electricity, thus resulting in climate change. There are various industries and sources from where the greenhouse gas is emitted and causes climate change and business organizations and their operations contribute most to climate change. There are certain primary sources from where the greenhouse gases are emitted and lead to climate change. The transportation sector emits the largest amount of greenhouse gases leading to climate change. The transportation sector emits the energy by burning the fossil fuels, it has been found that around the world 90% of the fuels used by this sector are petroleum, which includes gasoline and diesel. The electricity-producing industry stands in the second position in terms of contributing to climate change, it has been reported that around 62% of the electricity comes from burning fossil fuels mostly consisting of coal and natural gas. This paper intends to discuss the contributions business makes toward climate change, for that purpose two problems in two different sectors has been selected, additional different solutions for the two problems have also been provided and at the end, an evaluation of the climate change has been provided. 

Electricity Sector 

The electricity industry is involved in the transmission, generation, and distribution of energy. The level of carbon dioxide, is the gas that makes up the majority of the greenhouse gas emissions, in addition to that methane, and nitrous oxide are also main contributors to climate change. These gases are being released because of the burning of the fossil fuels, such as coal, oil, and natural gas, to produce electricity (Ward, 2015). A very small amount of sulfur hexafluoride also adds upto to climate change, the sulfur hexafluoride is an insulating chemical that is being used to transmit and distribute equipment. The burning of coal transmits more carbon than the burning of natural gas, or petroleum to produce electricity. It has been noted that around 61% of the carbon dioxide is emitted by this sector, which is a major problem (Kweku et al., 2018). Apart from that the nuclear energy-producing industries also contribute to the climate change and have become a major concern of the government all over the world, and hence it has pressured these industries to change their energy-producing techniques, and so the focus to some extent has changed to renewable sources of energy like the hydroelectricity, biomass, wind, and solar. The chances of carbon emission are comparatively less in these renewable sources of energy. The issue that has been found is two-fold, firstly, excessive emission of carbon and other CFL gases are increasing the temperature of the earth, as a result of which the glaciers are melting, and even the ozone layer (L Ward, 2016) that protects the earth from the harmful rays of the sun can also not be guarded because of the hole that has been created. The second issue is that the non-renewable sources of energy once exhausted will take another million years to form and hence, it is advisable to judiciously use the resources. There are other industries as well that uses electricity, thus, it can be said that the industries using energy also contribute to the emission of carbon thus leading to climate change. The end-user of the electricity also helps to know the demand for the energy, and how the changes taking place in the use of energy over time. The greenhouse gas emission from the commercial sector has increased substantially (Caney, 2015), mostly carbon is being emitted from heating, ventilation, air conditioning, lighting, and appliances. 

The Industrial Sector (Producing Goods and Raw Materials)

Industrial Sector (producing goods and raw materials)

The second problem is associated with the carbon emission from the industrial sectors that produce goods and raw materials. The carbon or the greenhouse emissions during the industrial emission can be divided into two categories, the first is the direct emission and the next is the indirect emission. Direct emissions are the burning of fossils fuels while producing any products. Whereas in the indirect emissions, the fossil fuels are burnt in the power plant to make electricity, and then the energy is used by the industrial facility to produce goods and raw materials. This is also a major issue contributing to climate change. The impact of the carbon emission or the greenhouse gases will have the same impact on climate change (Ghosh, 2018). 

It has been noted that the majority percentage of the carbon dioxide is emitted by this sector, which is a major problem. Apart from that the nuclear energy-producing industries also contribute to the climate change and have become a major concern of the government all over the world, and hence it has pressured these industries to change their energy-producing techniques, and so the focus to some extent has changed to renewable sources of energy like the hydroelectricity, biomass, wind, and solar (Ritchie, and Roser, 2020). The chances of carbon emission are comparatively less in these renewable sources of energy. Excessive emission of carbon and other CFL gases are increasing the temperature of the earth, as a result of which the glaciers are melting, and even the ozone layer that protects the earth from the harmful rays (L Ward, 2016) of the sun can also not be guarded because of the hole that has been created.

• The coal-fired boiler should be converted in a way so that it can be used with natural gas, and lead to less emission of carbon.
• The single cycle of the gas turbine should be changed into a combined cycle of the turbine for less emission of carbon.
• To shift the dispatch of the electric generators to lower-emitting units or power plants for lesser emission of greenhouse gases (Aldy, and Pizer, 2015).
• The emission of carbon has pressured these industries to change their energy producing techniques, and so the focus to some extent has changed to renewable sources of energy like hydroelectricity, biomass, wind, and solar. The chances of carbon emission are comparatively less in these renewable sources of energy (Gillingham, and Stock, 2018).
• To change the policies of the companies and changing keep in mind the sustainability of the resources. 
• There should be policies to reduce less usage of perfluorocarbons (PFCs), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), and sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) so that the chances of air pollution are reduced, and also the chances of leakage also reduce (Fawzy et al., 2020). 
• The manufacturing process can also be changed in a way so that it utilizes less energy produced from fossil fuels. 
• Use renewable sources of energy rather than non-renewable ones. 
• Use the scrap steel and the scrap aluminium in contrast to the smelting new aluminium or even use steel. 
• It is important to create a portfolio of agile business strategies that should consist of decarbonization plans. It is important for these companies to reposition themselves and invest in new assets and reallocation, redesign products in such a manner that would emit low carbon and as a result contribute less to climate change (Baranzini et 2017). 

Thus, it can be concluded by saying that climate change can be regarded as the change in the temperature and the pattern of weather. These changes can be because of natural reasons, because of the changes in the solar cycle, and the others reason can be man-made. The changes in the climate started after the 1800s, and the reasons are related to human activities, it has been the main driver to change in the climate, specifically because of the burning of fossil fuels, like oil, and coal (Change, 2017). The climate change policies, mitigations, and adaptation help the regulators and the management of the companies to evaluate the challenges related to climate change. Evaluation of climate change also helps to identify what works, and under what situations. The past experiences and the innovations help to foster the effectiveness of policies that would be useful to mitigate challenges relate to climate change and increase resilience. Climate change can be regarded as one of the prominent challenges that humankind is facing. Since the 1950s the temperature of the earth has been rising because of the continuous destructive actions of humans (Hansen, and Stone, 2016). The greenhouse gases that are being emitted because of the industries and various other associated activities are at present posing a threat. Climate change has already started to affect the people, in various unexpected ways. The governments are calling for urgent actions to mitigate the issue and by changing the way energy is used and produced. The actions have been initiated from multiple fronts. Conferences take place, various pacts are signed to ensure the sustainable use of resources. Hence, what the business organization must do is evaluate their policies and accordingly respond to the need. Various adaptations need to be taken to reduce the adverse effects of the change in climate on the natural and human systems. 

References

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Baranzini, A., Van den Bergh, J.C., Carattini, S., Howarth, R.B., Padilla, E. and Roca, J., 2017. Carbon pricing in climate policy: seven reasons, complementary instruments, and political economy considerations. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, 8(4), p.e462.

Caney, S., 2015. Climate change. In The Routledge handbook of global ethics (pp. 384-398). Routledge.

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Fawzy, S., Osman, A.I., Doran, J. and Rooney, D.W., 2020. Strategies for mitigation of climate change: a review. Environmental Chemistry Letters, 18(6), pp.2069-2094.

Ghosh, A., 2018. The great derangement: Climate change and the unthinkable. Penguin UK.

Gillingham, K. and Stock, J.H., 2018. The cost of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 32(4), pp.53-72.

Hansen, G. and Stone, D., 2016. Assessing the observed impact of anthropogenic climate change. Nature Climate Change, 6(5), pp.532-537.

Kweku, D.W., Bismark, O., Maxwell, A., Desmond, K.A., Danso, K.B., Oti-Mensah, E.A., Quachie, A.T. and Adormaa, B.B., 2018. Greenhouse effect: greenhouse gases and their impact on global warming. Journal of Scientific research and reports, 17(6), pp.1-9.

L Ward, P., 2016. Ozone depletion explains global warming. Current Physical Chemistry, 6(4), pp.275-296.

Ritchie, H. and Roser, M., 2020. CO? and greenhouse gas emissions. Our world in data.

Ward, P.L., 2015. What really causes global warming?: greenhouse gases or ozone depletion?. Morgan James Publishing.