The role of geothermal in combating climate change

Abstract

Climate change is one of the biggest threats facing the Earth today. It has been a popular topic in recent decades, and in particular the concept of global warming. Some debates still continue whether the changes are due to natural or anthropogenic causes, or even if it is occurring at all. To estimate the effects of these changes, several climate forecasting models have been constructed to help deal with the possible consequences. The climatic changes are not expected to have equal effects around the world, e.g. Iceland, will likely experience different effects than China due to the different geographical locations, size, geomorphology etc. However, the changes will likely affect all parts of the world, in one way or another, and therefore it is essential to find out what changes are likely to occur and try to find ways to mitigate them. The most important and significant way of mitigating the effects of climate change is to increase the share of renewable energy sources in the global energy system which is currently dominated by fossil fuels. The combustion of fossil fuels emits an enormous amount of CO2 into the atmosphere. This addition of anthropogenic greenhouse gasses is expected to lead to higher temperatures around the world i.e. global warming, as historically, fluxuations in CO2 have shown a correlation with fluxuations in global average temperatures. Geothermal energy is a relatively environmentally friendly resource which has numerous benefits compared to other the renewable energy sources. It has the potential to contribute substantially in combating climate change in the near future if given the opportunity.