- Sep 2017
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some countries are already talking about banning the sale of gasoline cars after 2030.
It's not only talk. Great Britain has already decided in favor of such a ban by 2040.
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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.
It is arguable whether natural gas is a reasonable solution even in the short run. I argued in favor of this 20 years ago, but nowadays we have to cut emissions more drastically than would be possible by switching to another fossil fuel. The CO2 coefficient of natural gas is still about 2/3 of that of coal. Efficiency factors of power plants are also somewhat better for natural gas than for coal. Overall, we might save a bit more than half of the emissions by switching to natural gas while renewables can save much more. Furthermore, given the long technical lifetime of power stations, the "short run" could easily extend to 2060 or more.
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as long as there are still unburned fossil fuels in the ground, it is not too late to act
This is incorrect, at least if we want to stay anywhere near the 2 degree target. Especially coal reserves are so abundant (and there is coal gasification and coal liquefaction) that by far the largest part of them have to stay in the ground.
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