BRUSSELS, Belgium, January 31, 2007 (Refocus Weekly)
Renewable energy and energy efficiency can meet half of the world's energy needs by 2050, but time is running out, warn the European Renewable Energy Council and Greenpeace.
“Contrary to popular opinion, a massive uptake of renewable energy and
efficiency improvements alone can solve our global warming problem,”
explains the report, ‘Energy Revolution: A Blueprint for Solving Global
Warming.’ “All that is missing is the right policy support from the
President and Congress.”
“It is not only economically feasible, but also economically desirable, to
cut U.S. CO2 emissions by almost 75% within the next 43 years,” it adds.
“These reductions can be achieved without nuclear power, and while virtually
ending U.S. dependence on coal.”
“The bad news is that time is running out,” and a “fundament of setting
targets for the renewables industry is that these targets clearly show the
way ahead and therefore they need to be set” by sector for electricity from
green power, space conditioning from green heat and green fuels from biofuel.
The report was released as the European Commission prepares its Renewable
Energy Roadmap, to be adopted in coming months.
“At a time when governments around the world are in the process of
liberalising their electricity markets, the increasing competitiveness of
renewable energy should lead to higher demand,” it explains. “Without
political support, however, renewable energy remains at a disadvantage,
marginalised by distortions in the world’s electricity markets created by
decades of massive financial, political and structural support to
conventional technologies and the failure to internalise environmental and
social costs in the price of energy.”
“Developing renewables will therefore require strong political and economic
efforts, especially through laws that guarantee stable tariffs over a period
of up to 20 years,” it continues. “At present, new renewable energy
generators have to compete with old nuclear and fossil fuelled power
stations which produce electricity at marginal costs because consumers and
taxpayers have already paid the interest and depreciation on the original
investments. Political action is needed to overcome these distortions and
create a level playing field.”
“As past experience shows, only a clear, transparent and ambitious target
could deliver investor confidence and stimulate measures that are necessary
to reach the target,” it states. In 1997, the EU set an overall target to
double the share of renewables to 12% by 2010 but, for years after, the
growth of renewables was sluggish in countries without policies and targets.
Only in 2001, when a green power directive was adopted for electricity with
concrete national targets, was there a “real uptake and a change of
promotion mechanisms” in member states and the resulting growth of wind and
solar “is one of the most significant success stories in European industry.”
The report was commissioned from the German Aerospace Centre and the
Worldwatch Institute served as a technical consultant for the U.S. portion.
While supplies of all fossil fuels are becoming scarce and expensive, “the
reserves of renewable energy that are technically accessible globally are
large enough to provide about six times more power than the world currently
consumes – forever,” it notes. “Renewable energy technologies vary widely in
their technical and economic maturity, but there are a range of sources
which offer increasingly attractive options.”
“The climate change imperative demands nothing short of an energy
revolution,” the report explains. “At the core of this revolution will be a
change in the way that energy is produced, distributed and consumed.”
Members of EREC include the European Photovoltaic Industry Association,
European Small Hydropower Association, European Solar Thermal Industry
Federation, European Biomass Industry Association, European Renewable Energy
Research Centres Agency, European Wind Energy Association, European Biomass
Association and European Geothermal Energy Council.
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