Widespread electrification is not only coming, it is likely necessary to decarbonize the global economy.
“Mounting research suggests that aggressive electrification of energy end uses — such as space heating, water heating, and transportation — is needed if the United States and the world are to achieve ambitious emission reduction goals for carbon dioxide,” concluded the authors of a 2016 paper on “environmentally beneficial electrification.”
Or, as Vox’s David Roberts summed it up in a recent survey of the topic: We need to electrify everything.