“卖碳翁”-埃隆·马斯克!
马斯克已是名副其实的“卖炭翁”，且不再是我们认识的那位白居易笔下的凄惨卖炭老人形象。
当你还只是把“碳交易”、”碳达峰“、碳中和“作为新名词，一知半解时，卖炭翁马斯克则已经赚的盆满钵满了，盘点特斯拉2021Q2财报要点：
总营收119.58亿美元，环比+15.1%，同比+98%。汽车业务收入102.06亿美元，其中3.54亿美元为出售碳排放积分收入），环比+13.4%，同比+97%。
为什么碳积分可以换钱？
首先，我们一起脑补下什么是碳积分？在国内叫做新能源汽车积分管理制度，也就是NEV，简单理解，就是油耗、新能源两个维度给汽车制造企业打分，两个指标：
1、平均油耗目标值：汽车生产企业生产的汽车油耗，如低于这个值，就积正分，否则积负分。
2、新能源生产指标：每年标准不同，2021年要求是14%，2022年要求是16%，2023年要求是18%，如满足指标，就不扣分，否则积负分。
两个指标统计核算下来，如果车企的积分是负数，惩罚力度很大，要面临暂停高油耗产品的申报，暂停高油耗产品生产等等处罚。所以车企为了满足碳积分要求，一方面要严控燃油车的油耗，另一方面，生产更多新能源汽车。如果企业经过种种努力实在完不成，那只能去购买碳积分。
这下你知道马斯克怎么赚钱了吧！
而在这脱碳进行时，连天然气也要退出历史舞台，今天我们精读这篇文章，提前通过学英语的方式”欢送“天然气！
Can Natural Gas Be Part of a Low-Carbon Future?
脱碳进行时，天然气何去何从
要点
了解能源系统去碳化的意义LNG是什么能源？CCS是什么技术？CBAM是什么机制？“加减乘除”、“沉没成本”的英文表达
带着问题去精读
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精读原文
Natural gas—primarily methane—burns much cleaner than coal does, and it provides ready backup to variable wind and solar farms. That sounds promising, except burning natural gas still creates CO₂ .
Methane in wells and pipelines can leak into the atmosphere, amplifying global warming. And once the last coal plant closes, natural gas plants become the dirtiest electricity sources.
天然气（主要成分为甲烷）是比煤炭更清洁的能源，同时也是风能和太阳能发电厂的备用能源。尽管如此，天然气也并非尽善尽美，它在燃烧过程中仍会产生二氧化碳。
同时，矿井和管道中的甲烷还有可能泄露进大气中，进而加剧全球变暖。一旦最后一家燃煤电厂关闭，天然气电厂会成为最脏的电力来源。
📒 精读解析：
【拓展】：LNG液化天然气 (liquefied natural gas)shale gas页岩气，sour gas含硫气coalbed methane煤层气，tight gas致密地层天然气
2. 表示“备用/可替代”可用backup, alternative, replaceable, substitute例：a backup power supply备用电源make a backup of one’s work对文件进行备份
3. farm: an establishment at which sth is produced or processed负责生产/加工的企业wind farm风力发电厂，solar farm太阳能发电厂
【拓展】：发电厂power plant燃气发电厂gas-fired power plant水力发电厂hydroelectric power plant潮汐能tidal power，地热能geothermal power
4. 加重/加剧amplify, intensify, aggravate, exacerbate
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精读原文
To reduce CO 2 emissions, society has to decarbonize its energy systems as quickly as possible. Building more wind and solar farms is relatively inexpensive and fast, and it accelerates the shutdown of coal plants. But exploiting the best locations—the wind-swept plains and sunbaked deserts—requires a greatly expanded transmission grid to bring the electrons to major cities and manufacturing complexes.
Those wires and poles introduce risks from windstorms, floods and fires—all rising because of climate change—and township after township routinely fights expansion plans: “Not in my backyard.”
📒精读解析：
2. electron电子 → proton质子, neutron中子, ion 离子
3. transmission grid 传输网络
【拓展】：国家电网State Grid
4. complex: a whole structure (as a building) made up of interconnected or related structures
例：a low-cost apartment complex一个低价公寓楼群
5. 形容“招致（不好的事物）”还可以用court, invite
例：court danger/death/disaster 招致危险/死亡/灾难
As a politician he has often courted controversy. 作为政治人物，他常常招致争议。
Their refusal to compromise will inevitably invite more criticism from the UN. 他们的拒绝让步将不可避免地招致来自联合国的更多批评。
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精读原文
In America, nearly 70 million households served by natural gas have furnaces, water heaters and cooktops worth at least another $100 billion.
Multiply all that sunk investment by about five for the entire world. Gas is more intertwined than any other energy source with other sectors of society—transportation, buildings (for heating and cooking) and industry (for heat and as a feedstock for chemicals)—making it harder to replace.
📒精读解析：
【拓展】：加减乘除add, subtract, multiply and divide
2. 沉没成本sunk cost: in economics and business decision-making, a sunk cost (also known as retrospective cost) is a cost that has already been incurred and cannot be recovered.
Sunk costs are contrasted with prospective costs（预期成本）, which are future costs that may be avoided if action is taken.
Even though economists argue that sunk costs are no longer relevant to future rational decision-making, in everyday life, people often take previous expenditures in situations, such as repairing a car or house, into their future decisions regarding those properties.（沉没成本会干扰决定/影响预算）
2. feedstock: the main raw material used in the manufacture of a product（制造产品的）原料
3. 独一无二 matchless, unique, unparalleled, without peer不可替代的irreplaceable，不可或缺的indispensable
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精读原文
Swapping out that infrastructure before its natural lifetime ends would entail financial losses for the current owners, who will push back.
If we can clean emissions out of the natural gas system, it could be part of a carbon-neutral future in stead of a bridge. The technology exists to extract the carbon or to transform the gas so that carbon coming out and carbon going in balance to zero or near zero.
如果在这些基础设施的预期使用寿命结束前就将其淘汰，势必会给设施使用者带来经济损失，并招致他们的反对。但是，如果我们能实现天然气的清洁排放，那它就能在碳中和未来中享有一席之地，而不只是通往碳中和的一座桥梁。我们已拥有现成的技术——能够完成对天然气排放物的碳提取，或是对天然气的进一步处理，使它消耗与排出的碳相抵消或接近抵消。
📒精读解析：
【拓展】：phase out逐步淘汰“淘汰”的其它表达weed out, knock out, eliminateswap-in（计算机）换入/换进
2. 标黄部分类似表达：Proponents see gas as the “bridge fuel” to a greener world. (The Economist 2021-06)
3. 相同概念表达：碳中和carbon neutral: emitting no net carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.碳补偿carbon offset: a reduction in emissions of carbon dioxide or othergreenhouse gases made in order to compensate for emissions made elsewhere.
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精读原文
The first step in a comprehensive plan for decarbonizing the nation’s energy infrastructure would be improving energy efficiency and conservation to reduce consumption. The second would be to electrify as many cars, space heaters, water heaters and cooktops as is practical, using renewable sources.
At the same time, tighten up the leaky gas infrastructure. And replace as much natural gas as possible with low-carbon alternatives such as biogas, hydrogen and synthesized methane or use a process called pyrolysis at the end of the natural gas pipes to get the carbon out.
📒精读解析：
2. space heater: a heater used to warm the air in an enclosed area (a room or office)（在房间或办公室内的）局部供热装置
【拓展】：heating radiator 暖气片
3. water heater热水器【拓展】：thermos热水瓶，electric kettle电热水壶
4. cooktop嵌入式灶具，炉灶
【拓展】：stove炉/窑，oven烤箱
5. 增强cement, strengthen, heighten, tighten/build up, boost, reinforce
6. （化学）热解/高温分解pyrolysis, thermal decomposition
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