[Stoves] Fwd: Re: [Sfpnotices] Green Energy Solves Dual Crises of Poverty and Climate

[Lloyd Helferty]

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-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	Re: [Sfpnotices] Green Energy Solves Dual Crises of Poverty 
and Climate
Date: 	Tue, 26 Feb 2013 21:23:44 -0500
From: 	Robert Korol
To: 	Sfp Notices-list" <sfpnotices at physics.utoronto.ca>



Carla - thank goodness we are getting the power houses of our economic engines like the*World Bank*  on side with respect to green energy.
  Maybe there is hope for the world after all!

Bob

On Tue, 26 Feb 2013 20:42:37 -0500
  "Carla"<carla.wong at utoronto.ca>  wrote:
> Source:
>
>http://www.ipsnews.net/2013/02/green-energy-solves-dual-crises-of-poverty-and-climate/
>
>
> Green Energy Solves Dual Crises of Poverty and Climate
>
> By Stephen Leahy
>
>
> UXBRIDGE, Canada, Feb 25 2013 (IPS) - Green energy is the only way to bring
> billions of people out of energy poverty and prevent a climate disaster, a
> new study reveals.
>
> Conservative institutions like the World Bank, the International Energy
> Agency and accounting giant Price Waterhouse Coopers (PwC) all warn humanity
> is on a path to climate catastrophe unless fossil fuel energy is replaced by
> green energy.
>
> The U.N.'s/*Sustainable Energy for All*/  initiative intends to bring universal
> access to modern energy, doubling the share of renewable energy globally,
> and doubling the rate of improvement in energy efficiency by 2030.
>
> Poverty eradication, sustainable development and the transition away from
> fossil fuel energy go hand in hand.
>
> If those targets are met and similar efforts undertaken to*reduce
> deforestation*, then climate disaster can be avoided, said Joeri Rogelj of
> the<http://www.iac.ethz.ch/>   Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science
> in Zurich  who headed the analysis published Sunday in the journal
><http://www.nature.com/nclimate/index.html>  Nature Climate Change.
>
> "Poverty eradication, sustainable development and the transition away from
> fossil fuel energy go hand in hand," Rogelj told IPS.
>
> The U.N.<http://www.sustainableenergyforall.org/>  Sustainable Energy for
> All (SE4All)  initiative is ambitious, but brings a wide range of benefits
> including improvements in health, less air pollution and makes the
> all-important break from increasing fossil fuel energy use. The analysis
> shows the costs of SE4All is far less than the public subsidies the fossil
> fuel industry currently receives, he said.
>
> Nearly three billion people still use fire for cooking and heating. Of
> those, some 1.5 billion people have no access to electricity. For a billion
> more, their only access is to sporadic and unreliable electricity networks.
> Indoor air pollution from burning dung, charcoal, and wood for heating and
> cooking leads to nearly two million premature deaths of women and children
> every year, more than all the deaths from malaria and tuberculosis.
>
> Dirty fossil fuel energy is also a major health hazard in industrial
> countries, responsible for 50,000 to 100,000 premature deaths and 400
> billion dollars in health costs a year in the U.S. alone, said Mark Jacobson
> an energy expert at Stanford University in California.
>
> "In the European Union, it is 350,000 premature deaths a year," Jacobson
> told IPS.
>
> SE4All was first announced in 2009. "Energy interacts with all of the
> development challenges we face," Kandeh Yumkella, director-general of the
> United Nations Industrial Development Organisation
><http://www.ipsnews.net/2009/06/development-green-energy-for-all-by-2030/>
> told IPS at the launch.
>
> Energy experts calculate that decentralised, off-grid technologies like
> wind, solar, geothermal and micro-hydro energy generation are the fastest
> and most cost effective solutions. Extending current electrical grids only
> makes economic sense to meet 15-20 percent of the need due to the high
> costs.
>
> SE4All is well under way now, with more than 50 developing countries working
> on national plans to achieve the three goals of universal access, increasing
> renewable energy, and doubling the rate of improvement in energy efficiency.
>
> Since 80 percent of human carbon dioxide emissions come from the global
> energy system, Rogelj and colleagues at the International Institute for
> Applied Systems Analysis in Laxenberg, Austria wanted to quantify the impact
> on the global climate.
>
> "Achieving the three SE4ALL objectives could put the world on a path towards
> global climate protection," they
><http://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nclimate1806.html
>  > conclude in their paper "The UN's 'Sustainable Energy for All' initiative
> is compatible with a warming limit of 2 °C".
>
> "Doing energy right will promote the Millennium Development Goals, such as
> poverty eradication and social empowerment, and at the same time kick-start
> the transition to a lower-carbon economy," says IIASA researcher David
> McCollum, who also worked on the study.
>
> "But the U.N.'s objectives must be complemented by a global agreement on
> controlling greenhouse gas emissions."
>
> Even if the targets are achieved, explosive economic growth coupled with
> greater energy use will overwhelm the climate protection benefits of SE4All.
> "There is an explicit need for a global cap on emissions," said Rogelj .
>
> Global carbon emissions were about 52 gigatonnes (billion metric tonnes) in
> 2012 and that means fossil fuel energy use must decline so emissions are
> about 41-47 Gt by 2020 to have a reasonable chance of keeping global warming
> below two degrees C.
>
> The shift to green energy is under way. Every new megawatt added to the U.S.
> electricity supply in January came from renewables, and more than half of
> all new electricity generation in 2012 was also from renewables, not gas as
> often believed.
>
> Iceland has 81 percent renewable energy. Scotland has a mandate to achieve
> 100 percent renewable power supply by 2020. Denmark passed laws requiring
> that the whole energy supply - electricity, heating/cooling, and
> transportation - be met by renewable resources.
>
> Stanford's Jackobson, among others, have proposed detailed plans on how to
> meet 100 percent of the world's energy needs with green energy. Jacobson
> believes it could be done as soon as 2030.
>
> Costs for the SE4All plan are relatively modest at between 30 and 40 billion
> dollars a year, a fraction of the 523 billion dollars in subsides for dirty
> energy in 2011, according to the International Energy Agency. By 2030, 300
> billion dollars a year will be needed to bring electricity into every home
> on the planet and prevent catastrophic climate change.
>
> Fossil fuel emission reductions will have to continue after 2030 and
> eventually decline to near zero in order to stay below two degrees C, said
> Rogelj.
>
> - See more at:
>http://www.ipsnews.net/2013/02/green-energy-solves-dual-crises-of-poverty-and-climate/#sthash.bCVEtR8U.dpuf
>
>

- - - - - - -
Robert Korol	
Professor emeritus, Civil Engineering
McMaster University	

   


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