{"id":430,"date":"2008-05-16T08:25:38","date_gmt":"2008-05-16T13:25:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/2008\/05\/16\/race_for_clean_energy\/"},"modified":"2008-05-16T08:25:38","modified_gmt":"2008-05-16T13:25:38","slug":"race_for_clean_energy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/2008\/05\/16\/race_for_clean_energy\/","title":{"rendered":"Clean Technologies: The Race Is On!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tony KreindlerThis post is by Tony Kreindler, media director for the National Climate Campaign at Environmental Defense Fund.<\/i><\/p>\n

The main reason to pass climate legislation as soon as possible is that the fate of the world is at stake. We’re in a race against time to stop global warming, or face irreversible climate catastrophe.<\/p>\n

But there’s also another race – the race to develop the clean energy technologies that will power our future. The world is at the dawn of a technological revolution, and we need the economic incentive of climate legislation to fully participate.<\/p>\n

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Global investment in clean energy is growing – rising to over $70 billion in 2007, as you can see in the graph below. But it isn’t enough.<\/p>\n

Annual Investment in Renewables, 1995-2007
\nSource: REN21 2007 Global Status Report<\/a>. Used with permission.<\/i><\/p>\n

When you look at total world energy consumption over time, you can see how far we still have to go. In the graph below, renewables are shown in red. They’re growing as a percentage, as you can see, but they still provide only a small fraction of the energy we use.<\/p>\n

World Fuel Consumption, 1971-2005
\nSource: IEA Key World Energy Statistics 2007<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n

What will it cost to meet future world energy needs? Global Energy Perspectives<\/a> examined this question under different scenarios. The scenarios that minimize global warming have the lowest costs, but the cost of meeting future energy needs – no matter how it’s done – is massive. The green (lowest-cost) scenario still requires over $9 trillion in energy investment from 1990 to 2020, and over $14 trillion from 2020 to 2050. That comes out to nearly $400 billion per year invested in renewables.<\/p>\n

When you put it that way it seems overwhelming, but we’re poised to do it. Here are just a few of the promising projects in the works (from Earth: The Sequel<\/a>)<\/i>:<\/p>\n