The world could eliminate fossil fuel use by 2090 by spending trillions of dollars on a renewable energy revolution, the European Renewable Energy Council (EREC) and environmental group Greenpeace said on Monday. The 210-page study is one of few reports - even by lobby groups - to look in detail at how energy use would have to be overhauled to meet the toughest scenarios for curbing greenhouse gases outlined by the UN Climate Panel.
"Renewable energy could provide all global energy needs by 2090," according to the study, entitled "Energy (R)evolution". EREC represents renewable energy industries and trade and research associations in Europe. A more radical scenario could eliminate coal use by 2050 if new power generation plants shifted quickly to renewables. Solar power, biomass such as biofuels or wood, geothermal energy and wind could be the leading energies by 2090 in a shift from fossil fuels blamed by the UN Climate Panel for stoking global warming.
Needed energy investments until 2030, the main period studied, would total $14.7 trillion, according to the study. By contrast, the International Energy Agency (IEA), which advises rich nations, foresees energy investments of just $11.3 trillion to 2030, with a bigger stress on fossil fuels and nuclear power. Rajendra Pachauri, head of the UN Climate Panel which shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with ex-US Vice President Al Gore, called Monday's study "comprehensive and rigorous". "Even those who may not agree with the analysis presented would, perhaps, benefit from a deep study of the underlying assumptions", he wrote in a foreword to the report.
EREC and Greenpeace said a big energy shift was needed to avoid "dangerous" climate change, defined by the European Union and many environmental groups as a temperature rise of 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) since before the Industrial Revolution.