Read the passage carefully and pick the option whose answer best aligns with the passage:In a low-carbon world, renewable energy technologies are hot business. For investors looking to redirect funds, wind turbines and solar panels, among other technologies, seem a straightforward choice. But renewables need to be further scrutinized before being championed as forging a path toward a low-carbon future. Both the direct and indirect impacts of renewable energy must be examined to ensure that a climate-smart future does not intensify social and environmental harm. As renewable energy production requires land, water, and labor, among other inputs, it imposes costs on people and the environment.Hydropower projects, for instance, have led to community dispossession and exclusion . . .Renewable energy supply chains are also intertwined with mining, and their technologies contribute to growing levels of electronic waste . . . Furthermore, although renewable energy can be produced and distributed through small-scale, local systems, such an approach might not generate the high returns on investment needed to attract capital.Although an emerging sector, renewables are enmeshed in long-standing resource extraction through their dependence on minerals and metals . . . Scholars document the negative consequences of mining . . . even for mining operations that commit to socially responsible practices: “many of the world’s largest reservoirs of minerals like cobalt, copper, lithium, and rare earth minerals”—the ones needed for renewable technologies—“are found in fragile states and under communities of marginalized peoples in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.” Since the demand for metals and minerals will increase substantially in a renewable-powered future . . . this intensification could exacerbate the existing consequences of extractive activities.Among the connections between climate change and waste, O’Neill . . . highlights that “devices developed to reduce our carbon footprint, such as lithium batteries for hybrid and electric cars or solar panels, become potentially dangerous electronic waste at the end of their productive life.” The disposal of toxic waste has long perpetuated social injustice through the flows of waste to the Global South and to marginalized communities in the Global North . ..While renewable energy is a more recent addition to financial portfolios, investments in the sector must be considered in light of our understanding of capital accumulation. As agricultural finance reveals, the concentration of control of corporate activity facilitates profit generation. For some climate activists, the promise of renewables rests on their ability not only to reduce emissions but also to provide distributed, democratized access to energy . . .But Burke and Stephens . . . caution that “renewable energy systems offer a possibility but not a certainty for more democratic energy futures.” Small-scale, distributed forms of energy are only highly profitable to institutional investors if control is consolidated somewhere in the financial chain. Renewable energy can be produced at the household or neighborhood level. However, such small-scale, localized production is unlikely to generate high returns for investors. For financial growth to be sustained and expanded by the renewable sector, production and trade in renewable energy technologies will need to be highly concentrated, and large asset management firms will likely drive those developments.Based on the passage, we can infer that the author would be most supportive of which one of the following practices?Please select your Answer.The localized, small-scale development of renewable energy systems.More stringent global policies and regulations to ensure a more just system of toxic waste disposal.Encouragement for the development of more environment-friendly carbon-based fuels.The study of the coexistence of marginalized people with their environments.

Introduction: Describe the purpose and focus of the paper.''1 Introduction On a global scale, the share of renewable energy sources (RES) in electricity production is small but growing continuously. To prevent economic losses and idle green resources caused by energy curtailments, corrective actions need to be taken. Moreover, RES must become accessible for sectors that still heavily rely on fossil resources, i.e., chemical industry, heating, and transportation [1], if global climate targets are to be met. In this context, technologies termed Power-to-[K], such as Power-to-gas, Power-to-chemicals, or Power-to-fuels, have attracted increasing interest in recent years (cf. Sect. 2). The terminology has been used for an ever-increasing number of applications, and the large diversity of applications associated with this terminology has resulted in the term Power-to-X. However, we are not aware of an established definition about what the X may or may not include. Looking at most instances of Power-to-X concepts, these aim at converting electricity into gases, liquids, heat, fuels, or even back from those into electricity [2–7]. We believe that in addition to the new aspect of bringing renewable electricity into production processes to replace fossil-based products, many recently proposed technologies under the term Power-to-X are closely related to the much older concepts of electricity storage and demand side management (DSM). Therefore, a broad definition of Power-to-X as processes with the goal to exploit the environmental and economic potential of renewable electricity is proposed. This explicitly encompasses electricity storage and DSM as well as the newer aspect that we call e-Production. In the following, first, a brief overview of the literature is given (Sect. 2). Then, details on the definition and classification of Powerto-X are provided, before key challenges and benefits for given external conditions are discussed (Sect. 3). Illustrative examples that demonstrate how process systems engineering (PSE) methods support overcoming these challenges are also given (Sect. 4). Finally, the most important findings and still open questions are summarized (Sect. 5).''

Africa does have easy access to a potential gamechanger, though: the sun. For years, solar panels were really expensive. But falling prices have made them a reasonable option.Why did the author include this passage?A.To convince the reader that solar power is not efficient enough to be a reliable energy sourceB.To explain why there is renewed interest in finding ways to use solar power for electricityC.To provide the reader with a reason for the dropping cost of solar panels over the past decadeD.To show how the cost of solar panels has continued to make electricity unattainable

ORIGINAL TEXT: Published online by Climate Action Tracker 2 AUG 2022Australia is suffering an energy crisis related to high global energy prices, an ageing coal power plant fleet and a lack of investment in renewable energy by the previous government, despite Australia’s huge solar and wind potential, and its renewable energy and green hydrogen export opportunities. STUDENT’S ASSIGNMENTWhilst Australia has an abundance of capacity in green and renewable energies for both domestic and international markets, the combination of lack of development in renewables, ageing infrastructure and elevated energy prices across the globe, have led to the current energy crisis we are experiencing (Climate Action Tracker, 2022)Is the student’s paraphrase acceptable?Responsesa Yes, because the student has kept the original meaning, but used their own words.Yes, because the student has kept the original meaning, but used their own words.b No, because the information is common knowledge, so citation isn’t necessary.No, because the information is common knowledge, so citation isn’t necessary.c No, because the student hasn’t kept the author’s main ideas.No, because the student hasn’t kept the author’s main ideas.d No, because the original text has simply been copied in the assignment.No, because the original text has simply been copied in the assignment.Skip to navigationItem1, Fully Attempted.Item2, Fully Attempted.Item3, Fully Attempted.Item4, Fully Attempted.Item5, Fully Attempted.Item6, Fully Attempted.Item7, Fully Attempted.Item8, Fully Attempted.Item9, Unattempted.PreviousNext

Passage 5 (Questions 21 - 25)Understanding and addressing the economic impacts of climate change presents a unique series of problems. The costs and benefits of any activity taken to mitigate the effects of global warming or to adapt to its impacts will inherently be unevenly distributed across nations, sub-national groups, and even generations. Economic policy decision-making is plagued by incomplete information and speculative assessments about the near- and medium-term impacts of climate change effects. Efforts to divert economic resources towards mitigation or adaptation must involve a heavy opportunity cost, with resources being redirected away from other economically salutary activities, possibly from more effective environmentally sustainable initiatives.With the deep uncertainty around these issues, economists and policy-setters are faced with a challenge to traditional decision-making processes. In the classical approach, key steps proceed in a more or less sequential fashion. Analysts start by identifying the nature of the problem to frame the construction of the relevant research. Research allows stakeholders to develop a complete or near-complete understanding of the relevant issues. Any shortcomings in such understanding simply fuel further research. Once avenues of exploration have been exhausted, policymakers can next identify a number of policy options and craft those options into the most optimal policy that is practicable, thereby solving the problem.Uncertainties surrounding the economic impacts of climate change, led Professor Granger Morgan to advocate for an iterative problem-solving approach. Under this heuristic, the research that follows problem-identification does not provide a full understanding of all relevant issues, but leads to both continued research and implementation of the adaptive policy that is identified as being the most likely to be beneficial. Policy implementation is carried out concurrently with further research, including assessment of the policy’s effectiveness. The policy and other identified alternatives are re-assessed in the light of new knowledge and changing circumstances, and the end state is not a comprehensive solution, but a refined or reframed identification of the problem, which iterates back to the initial research step and to the task of identifying the best adaptive policy for moving forward.One implementation of this latter approach is a method of risk mitigation borrowed from investment banking called the portfolio approach. Under portfolio theory, the only rational response to decision-making on uncertain terrain is to create a varied array of both possible and implemented responses. That is, policy-setters should advocate for the simultaneous deployment of both mitigation strategies and adaptation strategies in response to climate change and for the use of a number of strategies involving a resilient and diverse economy and insurance hedges spread across all economic sectors and in different regions of the globe. That is, a nation should ensure that some component of its financial resources is allocated to investments in various countries (and indeed, continents).Underlying any approach to decision-models or risk-analysis is cost-benefit analysis. Unsurprisingly, even this foundational assumption for fiscal and economic problem-solving has itself come under critical scrutiny. The typical cost-benefit analysis converts various factors into a common monetary unit – typically US dollars – and then seeks to maximize dollars. Critics suggest that climate change is a uniquely disastrous problem that is not susceptible to a simple dollar-based approach to utility, and that the various consequences of global warming should be disaggregated and examined on an individual basis. Thus, even if climate change were to have a “three-billion-dollar cost” to the petrochemical sector of the economy and a “one-billion-dollar cost” in the form of lost biodiversity in subtropical regions, these two numbers cannot meaningfully be compared to each other, and policies relating to these two issues must be separately examined. Question 25According to the passage, Professor Morgan’s approach: A.does not provide policies that solve problems.B.feeds back on itself in a way that is different from traditional models.C.takes longer to implement given the multiple rounds of assessment and reassessment.D.is favored by those who see traditional cost-benefit analysis as inappropriate.

Only adopting solar energy will not be beneficial, we have to generate and consume it in a centralized manner. True or False True False