80% of the world’s energy supply could come from renewable sources

By 2050, 80% of the world’s energy supply could come from renewable sources according to an IPCC report.

The report warns that the biggest constraint to renewable energy development over the coming decades is not an availability of renewable resources, but government policies

According to the IPCC, the body of the world’s leading climate scientists convened by the United Nations, if the full range of renewable technologies were deployed, the world could keep greenhouse-gas concentrations to less than 450 parts per million. This is the level that scientists have predicted will be the limit of safety beyond which climate change becomes catastrophic and irreversible.

Investing in renewables to the extent needed would cost only about 1% of global GDP annually, said Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the IPCC.

Renewable energy is already growing fast – of the 300 gigawatts of new electricity generation capacity added globally between 2008 and 2009, about 140 GW came from renewable sources. The investment that will be needed to meet the greenhouse gas emissions targets demanded by scientists is likely to amount to about $5trn in the next decade, rising to $7 trn from 2021 to 2030.

Although the IPCC is optimistic about the future of renewable energy, it notes that some forms of the technology are still more expensive than fossil fuels, and find that the production of renewable energy will have to increase by as much as 20 times in order to avoid dangerous levels of global warming. But ultimately, renewables will play a greater role than either nuclear or carbon capture and storage by 2050, the scientists predict.

The 1,000-page Special Report on Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation (SRREN) marks the first time the IPCC has examined low-carbon energy in depth. It is available on the IPCC web site.