Posted on 03 February
2011
Gland, Switzerland: All of the world’s energy
needs could be provided cleanly, renewably
and economically by 2050, according to a
major new study by WWF.
Two years in preparation,
The Energy Report breaks new ground with
its global scope and its consideration of
total energy needs including transport,
and making adequate and safe energy available
to all.
“If we continue to rely
on fossil fuels, we face a future of increasing
anxieties over energy costs, energy security
and climate change impacts,” said WWF Director
General Jim Leape. “We are offering an alternative
scenario – far more promising and entirely
achievable.
“The Energy Report shows
that in four decades we can have a world
of vibrant economies and societies powered
entirely by clean, cheap and renewable energy
and with a vastly improved quality of life.
“The report is more
than a scenario – it’s a call for action.
We can achieve a cleaner, renewable future,
but we must start now.”
The two-part report
contains a detailed analysis and scenario
presented by respected energy consultancy
Ecofys, an analysis by WWF, and a graphic
narrative by OMA. It shows that by 2050,
power, transport, industrial and domestic
energy needs could be met with only isolated
residual uses of fossil and nuclear fuels
– vastly reducing anxieties over energy
security, pollution and not least, catastrophic
climate change.
Energy efficiency in
buildings, vehicles and industry would be
a key ingredient, along with an increase
in the energy needs met through electric
power, renewably generated and supplied
through smart grids.
Under the Ecofys scenario,
in 2050 total energy demand will be 15 percent
lower than in 2005, despite increases in
population, industrial output, freight and
travel - and energy being made available
to those currently not enjoying its benefits.
The world no longer relies on coal, or nuclear
fuels, while international rules and cooperation
limit potential environmental damage from
biofuel production and hydroelectricity
development.
“In this report we are
very deliberately not making extravagant
assumptions about the benefits of technologies
yet to come,” said Ecofys director Kees
van der Leun. “This inherently means that
this is a moderate estimate of the renewable
energy future we could enjoy by 2050.”
“At Ecofys we know that
solutions for the global energy challenge
are at hand. There are numerous systems
that use energy more efficiently, allowing
us to manage current energy sources more
carefully. Moreover, we understand the opportunities
in using the vast amounts of sustainable
energy that surround us.”
Providing reliable,
affordable and clean energy on the scale
required will need a global effort – similar
to the global response to the world financial
crisis. But the benefits would be much greater
in the long term, with the savings from
lower energy costs balancing total new investments
in renewable energy and energy efficiency
by 2040 and savings over a “Business-As-Usual”
scenario amounting to around €4 trillion
from lower energy costs alone by 2050.
Other benefits are savings
from avoiding energy security conflicts,
dirty spills and supply disruptions that
are inherent in sourcing ever scarcer fossil
fuels from more and more politically or
environmentally challenging areas.
Importantly, The Energy
Report scenario would see CO2 emissions
from the world’s energy supply sector reduced
by over 80 per cent by 2050 - providing
a high level of confidence that the average
global temperature rise will be limited
to the less than the two degrees Celsius
threshold identified as presenting unacceptable
risks of catastrophic climate change.
“We will live differently,
but we will live well,” said Jim Leape.
“We must provide energy for all without
imperiling our planet, and this report shows
that we can.”
