0:07 we start with a look at why our
0:10 transition to a Greener future can mean
0:11 dealing with the legacy of our past
0:14 fossil fuels like oil and gas have been
0:16 powering the world for decades but they
0:18 often leave behind facilities that
0:20 continue to pollute long after they've
0:23 been shut down I traveled to America's
0:26 forgotten oil country to meet the people
0:28 sealing off our abandoned
0:31 Wells on a cold day in Autumn these
0:33 workers are helping clean up part of
0:36 America's petroleum
0:39 past old oil and gas Wells left
0:41 abandoned for generations and they're
0:44 not always where you might
0:46 expect when you picture oil country you
0:49 probably think of the oil fields down in
0:52 Texas but we are in a residential
0:55 neighborhood in Upstate New York here
0:58 just outside of Buffalo this abandoned
1:00 gas well is being sealed off in the
1:03 middle of someone's front yard we've had
1:05 some wells that are literally feet from
1:08 a house when they were drilled 100 to
1:10 150 years ago a lot of these houses
1:14 didn't exist at the time so over time as
1:15 as uh areas get developed you have
1:18 structures and houses being built uh
1:20 right up against them
1:22 sometimes it's part of the nation's
1:25 fossil fuel Legacy just a couple of
1:27 hours south in Titusville Pennsylvania
1:30 likely the first modern oil well was
1:31 drilled back in
1:35 1859 it sparked an oil rush across the
1:38 region by the 1880s Pennsylvania Rock
1:41 oil made up more than 3/4 of the global
1:44 Supply but the boom eventually dried up
1:47 and now decades later abandoned Wells
1:51 like this are still polluted so this is
1:53 an abandoned well it's one of hundreds
1:55 of thousands scattered across the United
1:57 States and every single one of them
2:00 could still be emitting methane a
2:03 greenhouse gas several times more potent
2:06 than carbon dioxide up until very
2:09 recently um methane emissions was not
2:11 that much of a concern and it's only
2:13 been recent science that has shown how
2:16 damaging methane actually can be so even
2:18 Trace Amounts of methane that is leaking
2:20 out of these Wells can be um pretty
2:23 impactful to The Climate uh and so we're
2:24 we're doing everything we can to be sure
2:27 that we seal those up over beyond the
2:29 rig here we have a freshwater tank
2:32 plants is the CEO of plants and Goodwin
2:35 a third generation oil services company
2:38 and business is an overdrive in 2021 a
2:40 federal infrastructure Bill set aside
2:45 some $4.7 billion for capping old Wells
2:47 the most ever spent on the problem a few
2:49 years ago nobody really cared about
2:53 these orphan Wells so through various uh
2:55 Avenues the government was able to come
2:57 up with some money and inject that into
3:00 each state to help solve this problem
3:03 but the solution injecting concrete deep
3:06 underground can be slow and sometimes
3:09 dangerous so this well had some
3:13 obstructions only 50 ft down uh in the
3:14 well that we didn't know we were going
3:16 to run into uh when we entered it the
3:19 challenge there is as you clean those
3:20 obstructions out there could be
3:22 significant gas pressure behind them so
3:25 you always have to be mindful of Well
3:27 Control uh so that you don't take a a
3:30 large explosion or or kick up at surface
3:33 and the scale of the problem is vast
3:35 there are more than
3:37 120,000 documented sites stretching
3:40 across the United States it's estimated
3:42 the true number could be in the millions
3:45 leaking nearly 3% of the nation's total
3:48 methane emissions this year we're
3:50 projected to uh successfully
3:53 decommission somewhere around 150 to 200
3:55 of these Wells but when we're talking
3:58 about the problem of wells in the
3:59 thousands tens of thousands hundreds of
4:02 thousands obviously that's not going to
4:04 quite get it done we're actively hiring
4:07 more people we are buying more equipment
4:08 um we're doing everything that we can in
4:11 order to ramp up quickly um and address
4:13 this issue cleaning up the pollution of
4:17 the past creating a new green boom here
4:18 where the last one went
4:21 bust the people that drilled these Wells
4:22 and the companies that drilled these
4:24 Wells haven't been in business for 50
4:28 years or 100 years in some cases and so
4:29 now just kind of left with what's called
4:32 their the the Legacy Wells um the legacy
4:34 of 100 Years of unregulated oil and gas
4:37 exploration now we're coming back and
4:39 and trying to clean up and and do right
4:42 by the communities that were affected by
4:44 it all right let's talk more now about
4:46 energy emissions and why cleaning them
4:48 up could make a big difference here's
4:51 the BBC's former science editor David
4:55 shookman if you want to try to limit the
4:57 rise in temperatures limit the explosion
4:59 of extreme weather events that we're see
5:01 seeing being so destructive at the
5:03 moment one of the best things that can
5:07 be done is to limit the leaking of
5:09 methane into the atmosphere the oil
5:11 industry has been talking about this has
5:14 been accused for years of allowing
5:16 methane to escape into the atmosphere
5:19 there are many other sources of it as
5:22 well and the Hope has to be that at last
5:25 people start to understand that the more
5:28 they can limit the venting of methane
5:30 The Escape of methane from leaky pipes
5:33 for example the bigger the difference
5:35 it'll make and it'll have a difference
5:38 that's not just significant in scale but
5:41 also in speed we really now need quick
5:44 action on climate change curbing methane
5:47 will be a great way to do that so what
5:50 will the energy of the future look like
5:52 the good news is a lot of the technology
5:55 that we need is already here wind and
5:58 solar energy made up 12% of our Global
6:01 electricity Supply in 2022 and that was
6:05 a new record 2023 could be even higher
6:08 that's thanks at least in part to solar
6:11 plants built on a massive scale recently
6:13 Paul Carter visited the largest solar
6:16 plant in the world on the edge of the Sahara
6:17 Sahara
6:22 Desert this is no a solar power station
6:24 putting Morocco at the Forefront of
6:28 pioneering renewable
6:31 technology this is not an ordinary solar
6:34 field panels with over 7,000 mirrors
6:40 Sun and I can hear lots of sounds at the
6:41 moment it's quite Eerie is that the
6:45 panels moving movement uh just with a
6:48 small speed all these reflect the sun
6:54 back at this dazzling Monument 243 M up
6:59 this white hot Beacon can hit 1,000° C a
7:02 liquid salt absorbs and transports this
7:05 heat using it to produce Steam and
7:08 generate electricity on the ground while
7:11 solar is used across the globe what's
7:13 special here is the molten salt which
7:17 retains energy 8 hours after dark even
7:19 with all the progress that we've made on
7:22 Renewables some energy experts say we're
7:25 going to need more a lot more one report
7:27 from the International Energy agency
7:29 says the world should Tri Le its
7:32 Renewable Power capacity by the year
7:34 2030 as part of a plan to limit global
7:38 warming to 1.5° C and avoid the worst
7:40 effects of climate change for more on
7:43 where we're at and where we need to go
7:45 when it comes to Renewables I spoke with
7:49 the ia's senior energy analyst Amy Bahar
7:50 can you give us the good news on
7:53 renewable energy what are you seeing in
7:56 terms of global growth over the last few
7:59 years we have been seeing record level
8:02 new uh power plants being installed year
8:05 after year uh last year there was again
8:09 an important jump of 15% more uh
8:11 capacity that's being deployed uh this
8:14 is great policy makers are introducing
8:16 new policies or implementing faster
8:19 their existing policies and the costs
8:22 are coming down now the iea has released
8:24 a report and it says that the world
8:26 needs to Triple its Renewable Power
8:29 capacity by 2030 in order to stay on
8:31 track to meet our goals in the Paris
8:35 agreement of 1.5° C warming tell me more
8:38 about that tripling number and what
8:41 needs to happen to achieve that goal we
8:44 see that this tripling uh is ambitious
8:48 but achievable uh and this ambition is
8:50 will be defined by government's policies
8:52 and how they approach and how they push
8:55 this tripling capacity in the coming
8:58 eight years basically now it's a very
9:00 short period of time in order to solve
9:02 the challenges that is upcoming big or
9:06 small Renewables can offer a solution
9:08 and the government slowly discovered
9:09 that it used to be climate change
9:12 mitigation then energy security come
9:13 into the picture and show the
9:15 governments that actually deploying
9:17 Renewables faster is a solution to
9:20 energy security issues as well so in
9:22 that sense I think Renewables have
9:25 proven to be U resilient and offering
9:28 solutions to the challenges that that
9:30 the world is facing let's talk economics
9:32 because for a long time Renewables were
9:35 seen as more expensive than fossil fuels
9:37 is that still the case I can give you
9:39 the the good news on this one especially
9:42 for solar PV and wind which which
9:44 account for majority of this tripling
9:46 growth that we need they are in the
9:49 majority of the countries not maybe most
9:52 countries in the world they are uh
9:55 cheaper than fosil fuel Alternatives uh
9:58 both natural gas and coal so the cost
10:01 discussion is almost over in my opinion
10:04 Greening the world's energy Supply is
10:06 obviously a a big challenge what gives
10:10 you the biggest reason for optimism that
10:13 we can do it in time the big optimism
10:16 that I have uh first of all is the costs
10:19 because if they were not economically
10:22 available in our hands the government or
10:24 Society will have a different view uh on
10:26 the clean energy transition this is an
10:29 important turning point I think to a
10:31 achieve this faster expansion of
10:34 Renewables in that sense um governments
10:36 are still behind Renewables not
10:39 providing subsidies though more and more
10:41 they are providing the framework a
10:43 better framework that they can operate
10:46 in rather than providing them cash so
10:48 that's the thing that needs to continue
10:51 because Renewables require a stable
10:54 policy environment uh which many
10:57 governments today are able to provide
10:59 and uh it is important that they keep
11:02 doing it now to a city that's truly
11:03 walking the walk when it comes to
11:05 renewable energy you might know
11:07 Burlington Vermont as the home of Ben
11:10 and Jerry's ice cream but it's also the
11:13 first US city to get 100% of its
11:15 electricity from renewable sources and
11:18 one of more than 40 cities globally the
11:20 head of the city's electric company gave
11:22 me the inside scoop I just want to start
11:24 with this statistic which is really
11:28 striking 25% of Burlington's energy came
11:30 from renewable energy sources just a
11:32 decade later you're now at 100%
11:35 renewable energy what changed how did
11:39 you get to 100% Renewables yeah it's a
11:42 great story uh for Burlington uh in 2004
11:46 we were 25% renewable the electric
11:47 commission uh and the electric
11:49 Department set a goal of moving to
11:52 become 100% renewable but over the
11:55 course of that 10year period Burlington
11:57 electric was able to contract for
11:59 different wind projects to increase its
12:02 Reliance on hydrop power uh to start to
12:06 add solar uh to its mix as well and in
12:09 2014 the last step uh in that process
12:12 was purchase of a local hydropower Dam
12:14 called the wooki one that we now own and
12:16 operate that was the last piece of the
12:17 puzzle this is Vermont that we're
12:19 talking about so obviously the sun
12:20 doesn't always Shine the wind doesn't
12:23 always blow are there days when it's
12:25 difficult to close that Gap and power
12:27 your City without having to resort to
12:29 dirtier sources of electricity well it's
12:31 exactly right that uh wind and soul are
12:33 really important resources but they are
12:36 variable resources so we rely on the
12:38 ability to run our wood chip plant where
12:41 we can store fuel on site and dispatch
12:43 it when it's needed and we definitely
12:45 rely on hydr power increasingly we're
12:47 going to see battery storage uh play an
12:49 important role there as well you
12:51 mentioned this wood ship plant it's
12:53 often called biomass it's essentially
12:55 burning wood to generate electricity
12:57 that does come with its its own
12:59 drawbacks its own impacts on on the
13:00 environment how do you balance that what
13:02 are the drawbacks when it comes to using
13:05 biomass which I believe is is about a
13:07 third of your electricity Supply we're
13:10 using local wood residue and essentially
13:11 when when Foresters are going out and
13:13 harvesting for other higher value
13:16 operations to get wood for timber for
13:19 furniture for construction there's
13:21 leftover wood product tops and limbs
13:23 diseased and damaged trees we're able to
13:25 take that leftover product and use it
13:28 for electricity um so that has a very
13:30 different carbon profile than if
13:32 somebody was going out and just clear
13:34 cutting trees specifically for energy
13:37 converting an entire city to 100%
13:40 renewable electricity is not an easy
13:42 task how did you go about getting the
13:44 community on board what's been the
13:45 reaction from citizens there in in
13:48 Burlington Vermont so I think that it's
13:49 partly that we have a committed
13:51 population that supports uh these types
13:53 of initiatives and it's also that we're
13:55 trying to do so in a way that's
13:57 economically beneficial and hopeful you
13:58 know hopefully that's replicable uh for
14:01 other communities as well Burlington is
14:04 a smaller City around 50,000 people how
14:07 can what's been done there be scaled up
14:09 and applied to much larger cities in the
14:11 US we talk with other communities other
14:13 community leaders uh from out of state
14:15 even sometimes internationally uh we
14:18 have folks who visit Burlington and one
14:20 of the things that I like to share is
14:21 it's really important to start with a
14:24 tangible goal and I think uh every
14:26 Community has some uh renewable
14:28 resources that they can utilize some
14:30 effort that they can utilize towards
14:32 Energy Efficiency there are now
14:33 additional communities since we became
14:36 100% renewable that have joined us and
14:38 we hope to have many many more the world
14:40 continues to make progress on switching
14:43 to renewable energy but some Industries
14:45 face a tougher task than others one of
14:47 them is the aviation industry and
14:50 although air travel makes up around 2%
14:52 of the world's energy related CO2
14:55 emissions companies like Delta Airlines
14:58 say they're working hard to find ways to
15:00 decarbonize I caught up with Delta's
15:02 Chief sustainability officer Amelia
15:05 Deluga you know Aviation is really one
15:07 of the hardest Industries to try to
15:09 decarbonize I mean why is that and just
15:10 talk us through some of the challenges
15:12 that you're facing at Delta and in the
15:14 industry as a whole so let's talk about
15:15 the airline industry real quick I think
15:17 it's important to Just note that we are
15:18 two to three% of global greenhouse gas
15:20 emissions today but as a hardto
15:21 decarbonized sector that's expected to
15:24 grow as other Industries start to move
15:26 towards net zero before 2050 so what
15:28 makes us hard to decarbonize it's the
15:30 singular fact that 90% of our impact on
15:33 the planet comes from jet fuel and
15:35 putting a battery pack on an airplane
15:37 just physics means that isn't really
15:39 doable and so our Solutions aren't as
15:41 straightforward as say the automotive
15:43 industry so what is that replacement is
15:46 there a clear path right now to coming
15:48 up with a fuel that will be a lot more
15:50 sustainable than what airplanes
15:52 currently use so when we think about the
15:54 future there are lots of things we can
15:55 do as a company to be more fuel
15:56 efficient and our airplanes are
15:58 obviously more fuel efficient but that
15:59 doesn't get you to to zero and so the
16:01 answer is essentially sustainable
16:03 aviation fuel or saff and sustainable
16:06 aviation fuel is a liquid drop in fuel
16:07 it's just like the jet fuels of today
16:09 except for instead of coming from finite
16:11 resources like fossil fuels it's coming
16:13 from renewable sources could be bio or
16:15 AGG based which is what you're seeing
16:17 today in terms of used cooking oil um or
16:19 potentially a corn residue product but
16:21 in the future just like other Industries
16:24 it'll come from um synthetic sources but
16:25 that are renewable and are infinite so
16:27 things like hydrogen and carbon in the
16:29 future is what will be our fuel source
16:30 what's the timeline we're looking at
16:31 here because there has been some
16:33 criticism of the airline industry as a
16:35 whole of saying look can you speed
16:36 things up it's been it's been taking
16:38 some time right it's fascinating because
16:40 I've seen the industry really come
16:42 together with a very clear call to
16:43 action and so I think that's the
16:45 positive is that we're very United as an
16:47 airline industry that we have these Net
16:48 Zero Ambitions and we have a road map to
16:51 get there we know what we need to do but
16:52 the single biggest lever that we're
16:54 going to have to pull is the creation of
16:55 entirely new industry the sustainable
16:57 aviation fuel and when we just root
16:59 ourselves in the number even as Delta
17:02 the task is it's daunting um but we are
17:04 making progress for example I would just
17:05 call out that year-over-year for the
17:07 last number of years we've increased the
17:09 use of sustainable aviation fuel so
17:10 that's positive right it's moving up
17:12 every single year but the fact of the
17:14 matter is this year we'll probably use
17:16 about five million gallons of
17:18 sustainable aviation fuel and that's all
17:19 that we can get that's all that we can
17:21 get our hands on and we need to get to
17:23 400 million gallons by the back half of
17:25 this decade and that's still only 10% of
17:27 a replacement for jetfuel I think the
17:28 big thing is we want to be able to
17:30 decarbonize and move to Net Zero not
17:32 just for the sake of our own industry
17:33 but really for kind of the sake of the
17:37 world the fact of the matter is we still
17:39 all want to travel to see our friends
17:41 see our families often you have to get
17:44 on an airplane to do that what message
17:46 would you give to people who feel this
17:48 little bit of guilt or shame because
17:50 they know that they're flying they know
17:53 that that emits CO2 what message of Hope
17:55 can you give uh for the future for
17:57 people that want to continue to be able
17:59 to fly on airplanes I think it's
18:01 important to say we know what we need to
18:03 do to get to a net zero future that's
18:04 the first thing and I think the second
18:06 thing is we're doing everything that we
18:09 can do today to bring down our impact on
18:10 the planet and so while it may take us a
18:12 little while to get to Net Zero have the
18:13 confidence when you go through the
18:15 travel experience that you are already
18:18 seeing ways that we are starting to
18:19 bring down our greenhouse gas emissions
18:20 to bring down our footprint from
18:22 single-use Plastics a couple other
18:23 things that customers aren't always
18:26 going to see but they should be aware of
18:27 is how we're operating our planes today
18:29 are as already significantly more
18:31 efficient than it was even a couple of
18:33 years ago we're changing how we land how
18:35 we navigate through airspace we're
18:37 changing the weight that we put on board
18:39 through our Galley carts or our
18:42 servicing Provisions to try to reduce
18:43 the weight that's on that airplane or
18:45 try to operate more efficiently and so
18:47 these are things customers you may not
18:49 see when you're flying but just know
18:50 every single day we are operating more
18:52 efficiently than we did the day before
18:54 and that's already starting to move us
18:55 towards a better
18:58 future as we just heard there has been
19:00 some progress on making air travel more
19:03 sustainable like this Royal Air Force
19:06 flight in 2022 now it was the first in
19:09 the UK to be powered by cooking oil the
19:11 90-minute flight was also the first time
19:14 that a military aircraft of that size
19:17 flew on sustainable fuel the RF says
19:19 waste-based fuels could lower carbon
19:21 emissions by up to
19:25 80% okay now to something that may seem
19:28 like science fiction Conjuring energy
19:30 out out of thin air well two scientists
19:33 have developed a device that uses a
19:35 natural protein and moisture in the air
19:38 to generate a small continuous electric
19:41 current and they think it could be a
19:43 GameChanger I spoke to one of the
19:45 scientists behind the project electrical
19:48 engineer Jun Yao pulling electricity out
19:51 of the sky I mean this is an idea that
19:53 goes all the way back to Nicola Tesla in
19:55 the 20th century right but you think
19:57 that you might have figured this out
20:00 today in the lab there's possibility for
20:03 that although I think we have a way to
20:06 go to scale this up from the lab
20:09 prototype device to a much larger device
20:12 that can be deployed in the for example
20:14 ambient environment what will it take to
20:16 scale that up I understand that the
20:18 current device can generate enough power
20:22 to turn on one pixel of a TV screen that
20:25 that's not a whole lot of electricity
20:27 correct so if I mean you can't imagine
20:30 the th air probably cannot boast in
20:33 terms of energy density but I think it
20:36 can boast in terms of volume because the
20:38 entire Earth is covered with a very
20:42 thick lay atmospheric uh humidity if
20:44 this does become successful Professor do
20:46 you imagine this being used in our homes
20:48 is this something that might power our
20:51 refrigerator or our TV uh why not I
20:53 think it probably it's it could be more
20:56 attractive than solar panel because why
21:00 the solar panel uh uh still competes uh
21:04 with space or actually can it can be
21:07 ugly right deploying on on the roof but
21:11 imagine this this does not compete with
21:14 uh any kind of existing space because
21:18 humidity is 247 continues uh it's day
21:21 and night it's everywhere and once we
21:23 create energy it's also crucial that we
21:26 find ways to store it for that we go
21:29 from air to sand and the world's first
21:42 battery I'm here in the municipal
21:44 swimming pool in cankan Pai Western
21:47 Finland this beautiful pool very barmy
21:49 all year round but the heat that's in
21:51 here comes from a rather surprising
21:53 Source from
21:56 Sand the sand in question sits inside
21:58 this Silo in a power plant on the the
22:01 edge of this small finished town it's
22:03 the first commercial installation of a
22:05 potentially important technology that
22:08 works in a surprisingly simple way
22:11 electricity from wind or solar power is
22:13 converted into heat which warms the sand
22:17 up to around 500° C crucially the sand
22:20 can keep this heat without loss
22:21 potentially for
22:24 months and finally if you've ever
22:25 traveled on the London Underground then
22:28 you know just how hot it can get down
22:30 there but what if all that hot air could
22:33 be put to good use well at one abandoned
22:35 Tube Station it's being harnessed to
22:38 heat buildings up above Jamie Morland
22:41 discovered how it works everyone knows
22:44 how hot the underground can get people
22:46 crowded onto trains friction between the
22:49 rails and wheels here they're taking
22:52 that heat and using it to warm up homes
22:55 and businesses down there is the
22:57 northern line and this used to be a
23:00 passenger your walkway now when air is
23:02 pushed through from the trains it goes
23:04 up this ventilation shaft here which
23:07 used to be where the lifts were the warm
23:09 air is sucked up the ventilation shaft
23:11 by a
23:14 fan and this is the top of the
23:17 ventilator shaft the air is pumped from
23:26 ground the warm air heats the water in this
23:26 this tank
23:28 tank
23:31 and that hot water is pumped to more
23:34 than 1,000 nearby Council buildings such
23:37 as homes Leisure centers and Morland
23:40 Primary School who knew an abandoned chb
23:43 station could reduce carbon emissions
23:45 and make London more
23:47 self-sufficient and before we go a quick
23:49 reminder if you want to get more from
23:51 future Earth delivered each week
23:53 directly to your inbox sign up for the
23:55 future Earth newsletter in it you'll
23:58 find behind the scenes reporting from me
23:59 the week's top climate stories and
24:02 insights from our entire BBC climate
24:05 change team I'm Carl nasman thanks for
