World Wildlife Fund has called for more action on renewable energy and energy efficiency in order to close the ’emissions gap’ – the difference between emission levels required to curtail global warming and current expectations of actual future emissions.
In a submission paper to the UNFCCC at the COP 19 international climate talks in Warsaw, Poland, WWF said that not enough was being done to tackle climate change. "The window for effective action is rapidly closing," said Tasneem Essop, Head of WWF’s COP Delegation.
WWF said that decarbonisation was an urgent target and that renewable energy and energy efficiency would be key to this goal.
According to the recently-released IEA World Energy Outlook, the world is on a pathway to exceed global warming of 3.5°C in the long term and between two thirds and 80 per cent of all remaining fossil fuel reserves need to stay in the ground and not be used to avoid 2°C of warming.
"If we want to achieve the ultimate objective of the UN Climate Convention, the fossil fuel based energy sector has to fundamentally change over the coming decades," said a statement from WWF, which estimates the emissions gap to be 8-12 GtCO2e to 2020.
The environmental group says that renewable energy and energy efficiency together could close the emissions gap by 5-7.5 GtCO2e by 2020.
