Decarbonising America
America’s better future
This is the moment for an ambitious attempt to deal with climate change
Texas prides itself on being different. Yet it is in the grip of a winter storm that typifies the Snowmageddon-size problems facing energy in America. Although nobody can be sure if this particular freeze is a sign of climate change, the growing frequency of extreme weather across the country is. Texan infrastructure has buckled. The problem is not, as some argue, that Texas has too many renewables. Gas-fired plants and a nuclear reactor were hit, as well as wind turbines. Worse, Texas had too little capacity and its poorly connected grid was unable to import power from elsewhere (see United States section). Texas shows that America needs both a cleaner grid and a more reliable one.Texas 指美國德克薩斯州
grip 本意是「緊握；緊抓」，在這裡in the grip of 可以理解為「受…的控制（或支配）」
typify 意思是「 成為…的特徵」，形容詞是typical
Snowmageddon 指「雪魔」，即在2009年及2010年肆虐北美洲並造成巨大災難的暴風雪。infrastructure 表示「基礎設施」
buckle 意思是「（被）壓垮，壓彎」
gas-fired 表示「燃氣的；以煤氣為燃料的」
nuclear reactor 指「核反應堆」
turbine 意思是「渦輪機」，wind turbine 表示「風力渦輪機；風力發電機」
grid 指「輸電網」
Plans to overhaul American energy will come before Congress in the next few months. President Joe Biden has said that he wants fossil-fuel emissions from power generation to end by 2035 and the economy to be carbon-neutral by 2050. America is not just the world’s second-largest emitter, but also a source of climate-related policy, technology and, potentially, leadership. What is about to unfold in Washington will set the course in America for the next decade—and quite possibly beyond.Time is pressing. Neither Mr Biden nor his successors may get a second chance to recast policy on such a scale. Global emissions from fossil fuels and cement production in 2019 were 16% higher than in 2009. It will be even harder to limit climate change to less than 2°C above the pre-industrial level, the global threshold from which America’s target for 2050 comes. To be carbon neutral, the world must curb emissions by 7.6% a year for a decade, a steeper decline than in 2020, when covid-19 cut demand for oil and coal. For America, delaying action to 2030 would nearly double the cost of reaching net zero or, more likely, mean it overshoots its targets.unfold 指「展現，展開」，反義詞是fold（摺疊；裹）successor 意思是「 接替者；繼任者」，反義詞是predecessor（前任）threshold 意思是「門檻；界；起始點」，既可表示實際的「門檻；門口」，也可指抽象意義的「門檻」curb 意思是「控制；約束」，作名詞時意為「馬路牙子」，相當於kerb每一點讚賞都是因為愛！