What is the transition away from fossil fuels?
Coal, oil and gas are at the heart of the climate crisis: burning them produces carbon dioxide, and that is heating the planet, so far to 1.5C above preindustrial levels, and in future perhaps to more than 2.5C, a level that would lead to widespread and irreversible damage. Only by ending the use of fossil fuels can we hope to halt the upward march of temperatures, and recover a livable climate. But modern economies have grown rich on 200 years of fossil fuel use, and until recently – in the past 20 years, when advances in wind and solar power and electric vehicles made possible societies based on renewable energy – there was little alternative.
