ABU DHABI // Renewable energy can grow to dominate global energy supply by 2050, provided it gets the right kind of support, an influential report unveiled in the capital yesterday finds.
The document, produced by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), evaluated the possible penetration of clean energy based on 164 scenarios. The most optimistic concluded that clean power can provide 77 per cent of the world's energy demand by 2050 with proper funding.
"In order to bring about the reality of some of these scenarios, there will have to be significant investments in renewable technologies," said Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the IPCC. "These investments will still be less than one per cent of global GDP going up to 2050."
The report was prepared by more than 100 leading scientists, with the summarised version for politicians and the public that was approved early yesterday coming after several days of deliberations by 194 government delegations.
The document focused on six forms of clean energy, obtained from the sun, wind, ocean currents, rivers, plants and heat stored in the planet's interior.
Although these technologies differ significantly from one another, they all produce electricity without releasing additional carbon dioxide or other green house gases into the atmosphere. Fossil fuel technologies, on the other hand, release large amounts of emissions and their unabated use is expected to bring about significant changes to the climate later this century.
The report concludes that using more clean power can bring about cumulative savings of between 220 to 560 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide pollution between 2010 and 2050. These are needed if major changes to the climate are to be avoided.
Professor Ottmar Edenhofer, co-chair of the working group that prepared the report, said some of the new spending needed would have to be spent on modernising electrical grids, which evolved to accommodate fossil fuels.
"The deployment of renewable energy requires the development of new infrastructure," he said.
Dr Sultan al Jaber, the UAE special envoy for energy and climate change and chief executive of Abu Dhabi's clean energy company Masdar, attended yesterday's launch.
"I believe decision makers and policy makers around the world will find the outcome of this report very useful," Dr al Jaber said.
Abu Dhabi has set a target of seven per cent renewable energy by 2020, although it is also investing in nuclear power, a technology which some environmentalists are opposed to.
"Renewable energy needs to be a core part of a diversified strategy," he said.
