[Manuel_D]

Decarbonization can largely be achieved by replacing electricity production and fuels with carbon neutral processes. Nuclear power for power plants can do the former effectively anywhere where there is demand for power. The latter is trickier. Batteries work for things like cars, but don't have the energy density required for applications like transoceanic transportation. But that's where the prospect of hydrogen fuel comes into play. Industrial applications, like smelting, is another big application of fossil fuels that hydrogen can supplant.

[spfzero]

If generating electricity could be done carbon free via nuclear/solar/wind, and that electricity used to produce hydrogen via electrolysis, you'd have something for industrial/transportation uses.

[ancientworldnow]

Electricity production is only 20-40% of carbon generation (depending on what stat you're looking at and where). Nuclear power emits only a little less co2 than "clean" combined cycle nat gas when you account for the massive amount of concrete and energy for construction and decommissioning (aka lifetime emissions which is a stat rarely used for this reason).

Dirty electricity production (coal primarily) also has an aerosol masking effect the latest IPCC report estimates to be 0.5-0.8C in cooling - an effect we lose when we switch to renewable (which we should do anyway as this bandaid will need to be ripped off eventually).

The post you're replying to is exaggerating but a decarbonized economy will look nothing like what we have now.

[Manuel_D]

> Nuclear power emits only a little less co2 than "clean" combined cycle nat gas when you account for the massive amount of concrete and energy for construction and decommissioning (aka lifetime emissions which is a stat rarely used for this reason).

This is far from correct. Yes, concrete production releases CO2, but that only happens once over the 50-80+ year lifetime of a nuclear power plant. Carbon emissions from nuclear are a fraction of fossil fuels [1]. They need to have a separate magnified section to meaningfully show them on the graph: https://www.carbonbrief.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Scree...

1. https://www.carbonbrief.org/solar-wind-nuclear-amazingly-low...

And as mentioned earlier, fuels and industrial processes are where hydrogen comes into play: nuclear can produce hydrogen without C02 emissions through thermal generation.

[derriz]

You're ignoring a parallel development - the electrification of transport, industry and home heating/cooking. These sources constitute the majority of the rest of the co2 emitted.

In combination with decarbonizing electricity production, this provides a multiplier effect.