It’s More Than Just Energy
The clean energy revolution brings with it benefits that could change the way the world consumes and produces energy.
Our need for energy has never been greater. We are under numerous pressures – time, environmental, population and supply. We are under constant pressure to pump more fossil fuels. We are under constant threat of running out of fossil fuels. More importantly, we are under relentless pressure to find cleaner and greener alternatives.
Representatives from 196 nations made a historical pact at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris in 2015 that will kick in by 2020. The entire agreement can be distilled into 2 words:
Two Degrees
Our goal is to hold ‘the increase in global average temperature to well below 2 degrees C above pre-industrial levels’ by ‘mid-century’.
This means that we need to drastically reduce our amount of carbon emissions within the next 30 years, starting 2 years from now. The only way to do so is through a combination of supply and demand related policies.
The IEA reported in its 2012 World Energy Outlook that subsidies to fossil fuels in 2011 totaled $523 billion, 30% more than the year before and six times more than subsidies to renewable energy in the same period.