New Report Ranks World's Biggest Countries on Renewable
Energy
WASHINGTON, June 11, 2012 /PRNewswire
U.S. production of renewable energy has increased by more
than 300 percent in the past decade, but the United States still
lags far behind Europe and Indonesia and is only slightly ahead
of Mexico in the percentage of electricity it gets from
renewable sources, according to a new report from the Natural
Resources Defense Council.
European countries, led by Germany, get more of their
electricity from wind, solar, geothermal and other renewable
sources than any other region in the world, NRDC's global
renewable energy scorecard shows. The United States got about
2.7 percent of its electricity from renewables in 2011, making
it No. 7 among G-20 member countries.
Renewable energy is expected to be a major issue at the
upcoming Rio+20 Earth Summit in Brazil. NRDC is advocating for
countries to adopt policies to increase the percentage of
electricity they get from renewable sources to 15 percent by
2020.
Already some smaller, non-G-20 countries such as Spain, New
Zealand and Iceland get more than 15 percent of their energy
from renewable sources.
Favorable governmental policies and strong private-sector
investments have helped to increase the availability of
renewable energy in the United States and elsewhere, according
to Jake Schmidt, NRDC's International Climate Policy Director.
"Unfortunately, the very policies that have increased our
renewable energy supplies and reduced our dependence on dirty
fossil fuels are now under fire in the United States and
elsewhere," Schmidt said. "That's not just a threat to the
thousands of new jobs being created by the renewable energy
industry, but also a threat to our health, our environment and
our planet."
"At the Earth Summit, civic and corporate stakeholders must
commit to do more to increase electricity production from
renewable sources," Schmidt said.
"A global agreement to spur this deployment would be
helpful," he added. "But it is more important that key actors
come to Rio+20 with individual country commitments to increase
the amount of renewable energy to 15 percent of total
electricity by 2020-- more than doubling what is predicted under
current trends."
To see NRDC's renewable energy scorecard in its entirety,
please see http://www.nrdc.org/energy/12060701.asp.
For details about NRDC's energy and renewable priorities at
Rio+20, including video of Jake on energy at Rio+20, see
http://www.nrdc.org/international/rio-2012/cleanenergy.asp.
And to read Jake's blog on Rio+20 and renewable energy,
please see
http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/jschmidt/we_need_new_action_on_renewables.html.
The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is an
international nonprofit environmental organization with more
than 1.3 million members and online activists. Since 1970, our
lawyers, scientists, and other environmental specialists have
worked to protect the world's natural resources, public health,
and the environment. NRDC has offices in New York City,
Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago,
Livingston, Montana, and Beijing. Visit us at www.nrdc.org.
SOURCE Natural Resources Defense Council, Washington, D.C.
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