by Rebecca Walker — May 20, 2011—Nearly 80 percent of the global energy supply could be met by renewables by 2050 if backed by the correct public policies, a new United Nations report asserts.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, released May 9, indicates that the rising adoption of renewable energies could lead to cumulative greenhouse gas savings equivalent to 220-560 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide between 2010 and 2050. The upper end of the scenarios assessed, representing a cut of around a third in greenhouse gas emissions from business-as-usual projections, could assist in keeping concentrations of greenhouse gases at 450 parts per million.
The report’s findings are contained in a summary of the Special Report on Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation. The summary is a short version of a roughly 1,000-page comprehensive assessment compiled by more than 120 experts from all over the world for the IPCC.
The report noted that the substantial increase of renewables is very challenging technically and politically. The six renewable energy technologies reviewed included bioenergy, solar, power, geothermal power, hydropower, ocean energy, and wind energy. More than 160 existing scientific scenarios on the possible use of renewables by 2050 were reviewed.
For more information, see the report summary.
