In a world that relies heavily on fossil fuels to power homes, businesses and electronic devices, people have become concerned about the impacts of this energy production. Fossil fuels like coal, oil and natural gas produce pollution that causes global warming, increasing extreme weather events, loss of natural habitats, and a decrease in biodiversity.
In contrast, renewable energies harness clean, green energy that does not cause these harmful effects. Renewable energies include sunlight that is converted to electricity by photovoltaic cells, wind energy captured by onshore or offshore wind turbines, and tidal and ocean thermal energy. They also include energy from organic materials (biomass) and geothermal energy derived from the earth’s heat sources. Policy settings are required to favour renewables, such as priority dispatch in grid systems and favourable quota obligations or feed-in tariffs. This type of support is already in place in about 50 countries.
While renewables have provided a great deal of good news, they remain responsible for only 23% of the world’s energy supply. They need to increase their share much faster to get on track for achieving the emissions reductions in the NZE Scenario.
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