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Climate change scientists warn that the continued burning of fossil fuels is likely to cause major disruptions to the global climate system, leading to more extreme weather, sea-level rise and biodiversity loss. The changes also will compromise our capacity to generate electricity. In recent decades, capacity losses at United States power plants occurred infrequently, but scientists warn that the warming climate may increase their regularity and magnitude.
This instability could interrupt the power supply to homes, hospitals, transportation systems and other critical institutions and infrastructure at a potentially high financial cost. A new study has found that climate change ultimately will have a negative effect on the reliability of electricity generation in the United States, but today’s infrastructure may be more adaptable to future climate conditions than previously thought. Improvements in resiliency are largely the result of efforts driven by policy and economic opportunities that are making the U.S. power supply cleaner and more efficient, said scientists.Image credit: Khoonphoon Paungpun
