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he New I I orkaTGmes 3. Does clean energy help or hurt the economy? Job growth in renewable energy is strong. The energy sources with the lowest emissions include wind turbines, solar panels, hydroelectric dams and nuclear power stations. Power plants burning natural gas also produce fewer emissions than those burning coal. Converting to these cleaner sources may be somewhat costlier in the short term, but they could ultimately pay for themselves by heading off climate damages and reducing health problems associated with dirty air. And expansion of the market is driving down the costs of renewable energy so fast that it may ultimately beat dirty energy on price alone it already in some areas. The transition to cleaner energy certainly produces losers, like coal companies, but it also creates jobs. The solar industry in the United States now employs more than twice as many people as coal mining. 4. What about fracking or `clean coal'? Both could help clean up the energy system. Hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," is one of a set of drilling technologies that has helped produce a new abundance of natural gas in the United States and some other countries. Burning gas instead of coal in power plants reduces emissions in the short run, though gas is still a fossil fuel and will have to be phased out in the long run. The fracking itself can also create local pollution. "Clean coal" is an approach in which the emissions from coal - burning power plants would be captured and pumped underground. It has yet to be proven to work economically, but some experts think it could eventually play a major role. 5. What's the latest with electric cars? Sales are still small overall, but they are rising fast. The cars draw power at night from the electric grid and give off no pollution during the day as they move around town. They are inherently more efficient than gasoline cars and would represent an advance even if the power were generated by burning coal, but they will be far more important as the electric grid itself becomes greener through renewable power. The cars are improving so fast that some countries are already talking about banning the sale of gasoline cars after 2030. 6. What are carbon taxes, carbon trading and carbon offsets? It's just jargon for putting a price on pollution. The greenhouse gases being released by human activity are often called "carbon emissions" for short. That is because two of the most important gases, carbon dioxide and methane, contain carbon. (Some other pollutants are lumped into the same category, even if they do not actually contain carbon.) When you hear about carbon taxes, carbon trading and so on, these are just shorthand descriptions of methods to put a price on emissions, which economists say is one of the most important steps society could take to limit them. https: / /www. nytimes.com /interactive /2017/cli mate /what- is -cli mate - change.html ?em_pos = large &emc =ed it_cl i m_20170919 &n 1 = &nI id= 78952708 &ref =head I ine &te =1