While renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar, offer inexhaustible sources of energy, major questions remain about their low density, diffuseness and intermittency. The report also states that heating and cooling account for 48% of global energy consumption and 39% of CO 2 emissions because renewable sources deliver only 10% of the energy. However, one of the report’s key findings is that reaching carbon-reduction goals largely depends on the use of renewable energy to generate heat and cooling. The latest report from REN21, the global renewable-energy-policy multi-stakeholder network, states that the need to decarbonize the energy system is generally agreed, but that no consensus has of yet been reached on how to achieve this. With the world’s population set to rise to 10 billion people by 2050, and the commensurate, huge rise in demand for electricity that will accompany it, the question remains: how can we supply the electricity required without an increase in carbon emissions?Ĭlearly, this electricity must come from near-zero-carbon sources. Even financial crises and deindustrialization have failed to lower emissions and some countries are still building the dirtiest of coal-burning plants. Growing awareness of this destructive trend led the world community to a consensus at Kyoto and Paris, but evidence of the effectiveness of these agreements is scarce. Globally, the last quarter-century has been defined by fossil fuel and increased carbon emissions.
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