The shifts in temperatures and weather patterns, that is Climate change, though had been a natural process for much of natural history, has turned into a vastly human induced process since the1800s. From thereon, human activities, with special emphasis on industrialization, became the main drive of Climate change. But this time, with nature being unable to keep pace, the changes swiftly turned into harm.

Sustaining since then, the rate of climate change reached new heights within the last year. The abundance of heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere set a new record last year, with the annual rate of increase above the 2011-2020 average. The unprecedented levels of Co2 concentration have increased by 149% in comparison to pre-industrial levels, reaching 413.2 parts per million (PPM). The increase in CO2 from 2019-2020 was slightly smaller than 2018-2019 but larger than the average annual growth rate over the last decade. This is despite the approximately 5.6% drop in fossil fuel CO2 emissions in 2020 due to the COVID-19 restrictions. It is a precedented fact that fossil fuels release large amounts of carbon dioxide into the air when they combust. These (greenhouse) gases trap heat in our atmosphere and become the reason for rise in global temperatures or in short, global warming.

In this context, Solar energy proves to be one of the most reliable sources of sustainable energy, generating over 3% of the world's electricity. Biogas energy production, on the other hand, possesses enormous potential to tackle waste management and rural energy production, while Hydroelectricity generation, has been the face of renewable for developing nations, contributing to 26.3% of total renewable energy generation in 2018 and 16.6% of the total electricity produced in the world, becoming the hub of technological strides among other renewable energy sources. Lastly, nuclear energy production became the center of renewable energy discussions due to lack of hazardous gas emissions and no contribution to global warming.
However, all the mentioned energy generating technologies do have controversial aspects, pertaining to their production and storage, despite being hailed as 'eco-friendly'; In the case of Solar energy, its viability is clouded by its association with land degradation due to waste disposal and massive establishment costs. The difficult implementation of Biogas energy production is credited to the restricted technological advancement in its utilization and dependence on external factors such as weather, topography, while Hydroelectricity is highly efficient until the aspects of land degradation and human rights are put into perspective. And nuclear energy is most controversial for it's waste management being expensive and difficult and for its wastewater production affecting marine life and the dependent fishing industry.

The core of the problem remains to be the forage for a clean, efficient, manageable, and safe energy source that is socially and economically feasible. With constant strives in technology, this is becoming a reality, but we are still far away from perfecting its usage and implementation as this would require global cooperation and radical changes in order to limit the damages caused by currently used major energy sources.

Raghav Bhatia - Director

Shifana Sherin - Director