GREENPEACE SPEAKS

Greenpeace sees hope still.

Renewables and Climate Change
Stefan Nicola, January 26, 2007 (UPI)
- A new Greenpeace study on climate change calls for an immediate global push of renewable energy sources to avoid catastrophic effects of climate change.

- The report "energy (r)evolution," compiled by Greenpeace, top scientists from around the world, and the European Renewable Energy Council, an industry group…urges the world's governments to act fast if the average temperature increase compared to the Earth's 1990 value is to be kept below 3.6 degrees, the cap above which "catastrophic" effects of global warming would devastate the globe…
- Together with energy-efficiency measures, renewable energy sources are able to account for half of the world's total energy needs, the report says. That would also result in a bisection of the worldwide greenhouse gas emissions…
- The current global warming stands at roughly 1.4 degrees, but observers say the [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC] report will publish more dramatic numbers…

- The report presents an alternative outlook than the business-as-usual scenario from the Paris-based International Energy Agency, which expects a doubling of global energy demand by 2050. Eighty percent of that demand would be met by fossil fuels, meaning that the amount of CO2 would also double -- the 3.6 degree-limit could not be reached…
- [The Greenpeace “road map”] said…energy efficiency measures needed to be pushed…Better insulation standards for houses could save…industry could cut consumption by 11 percent by using more efficient machinery. Another 5 percent could be saved by changing old lights to more efficient bulbs…
- That way, the energy (r)evolution scenario would reduce primary energy demand…50 percent of that reduced primary energy demand in 2050 can be met with renewable energy sources, mainly by pushing biomass, but also solar, wind and hydro energy. Natural gas would become the dominant fossil fuel source, as it produces significantly less CO2 emissions than coal, an energy source to be phased out.
- Because of problems with end storage…nuclear energy, while producing no greenhouse gas emissions, is also to be phased out.
- Oil is to be used only in the transportation sector…

- Experts agreed that to make the scenario come true, concrete political measures had to be taken…governments had to formulate "binding worldwide targets for the share of renewable energy sources," in a country's energy mix…Nuclear and fossil fuel energy subsidies, which the United Nations estimates at over $320 billion, are to be abolished or at least significantly reduced…greenhouse gas emitters…would have to pay a tax based on the level of emissions…The study expects a ton of CO2 in 2050 to cost $50, as opposed to the current $4.50. Oil, now at roughly $55, in 2050 will cost $100…
- Based on these numbers, the energy (r)evolution model is even cheaper than the business-as-usual scenario by the IEA [quadrupling costs…the Greenpeace scenario would only triple costs…