UN panel says renewable energy to fuel future
Source: Agencies |
May 10, 2011, Tuesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
RENEWABLE sources such as solar and wind could supply up to 80 percent of the world's energy needs by 2050 and play a significant role in fighting global warming, a top climate panel announced yesterday.
But the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said that to achieve that level, governments would have to do more to introduce policies that integrated renewables into existing power grids and promoted their benefits of reducing air pollution and improving public health.
Authors said the report concluded that the use of renewables was on the rise, their prices were declining and that with the right policies, they would be an important tool both in tackling climate change and helping poor countries develop their economies in a sustainable fashion.
"The report shows that it is not the availability of the resource but the public policies that will either expand or constrain renewable energy development over the coming decades," said Ramon Pichs, who co-chaired the group which produced the report.
"Developing countries have an important stake in this future - this is where 1.4 billion people without access to electricity live yet also where some of the best conditions exist for renewable energy deployment."
The non-binding scientific policy document, concluded after a four-day meeting, is to advise governments' policies and to help guide the private sector as it considers areas in which to invest. The report reviewed bioenergy, solar energy, geothermal, hydropower, ocean energy and wind. It did not consider nuclear energy.
Stephan Singer, director for Global Energy Policy at WWF International, said the panel should have gone further. He said WWF studies have found that the world could be fueled 100 percent by renewables by 2050.
"We need to be fast if we want to tackle pressing issues as varied as energy security and efficiency and at the same time keep climate change well below the danger threshold of 2 degrees," Singer said.
But the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said that to achieve that level, governments would have to do more to introduce policies that integrated renewables into existing power grids and promoted their benefits of reducing air pollution and improving public health.
Authors said the report concluded that the use of renewables was on the rise, their prices were declining and that with the right policies, they would be an important tool both in tackling climate change and helping poor countries develop their economies in a sustainable fashion.
"The report shows that it is not the availability of the resource but the public policies that will either expand or constrain renewable energy development over the coming decades," said Ramon Pichs, who co-chaired the group which produced the report.
"Developing countries have an important stake in this future - this is where 1.4 billion people without access to electricity live yet also where some of the best conditions exist for renewable energy deployment."
The non-binding scientific policy document, concluded after a four-day meeting, is to advise governments' policies and to help guide the private sector as it considers areas in which to invest. The report reviewed bioenergy, solar energy, geothermal, hydropower, ocean energy and wind. It did not consider nuclear energy.
Stephan Singer, director for Global Energy Policy at WWF International, said the panel should have gone further. He said WWF studies have found that the world could be fueled 100 percent by renewables by 2050.
"We need to be fast if we want to tackle pressing issues as varied as energy security and efficiency and at the same time keep climate change well below the danger threshold of 2 degrees," Singer said.
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