Could the Earth become warmer if we increase our use of clean energy too?

Question

According to Geophysical Research Letters, the Earth warmed half a degree last year due to reduced soot and sulfate particles. This was due to the pandemix quarantines. [Study Here](https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1029/2020GL091805)

So I’m genuinely asking: could increasing clean energy also cause global warming? Are we in a lose/lose situation?

In: Earth Science

Answer 1

I mean, the climate is complicated, so I think it’s true that there are both warming and cooling effects of a lot of things. But they’re not equal, and the suggestion here is that the lack of soot and sulfate did have a warming effect in the short term. But note that the 0.3K is a regional maximum, not the global change (which was about a tenth of that)