A new report by the European Renewable Energy Council and Greenpeace International has outlined a global energy strategy to cut global CO2 emissions by almost 50% over the next 43 years, with the end result to see renewable energies delivering 70% of global electricity supply and 65% of global heat supply by 2050.
The plan recognizes the rapidly growing economies of China, India and Africa and concludes that renewable energies will represent the backbone of the world’s economy, not only in OECD countries, but also in developing countries such as China, India and Brazil.
The Energy Revolution scenario comes as the world is crying out for a roadmap for tackling the dilemma of how to provide the power we all need, without fuelling climate change, said Greenpeace energy expert Sven Teske. We have shown that the world can have safe, robust renewable energy, that we can achieve the efficiencies needed and we can do all this whilst enjoying global economic growth and phasing out damaging and dangerous sources such as coal and nuclear.
He continued: Renewable energies are competitive, if governments phase-out subsidies for fossil and nuclear fuels and introduce the ‘polluter-pays principle.’ We urge politicians to ban those subsidies by 2010.