Global focus on renewable energy for the future

The International Energy Agency is an organisation who are focusing on preventing catastrophic climate change over the coming decades. They have put together a “World Energy Outlook 2015” - a comprehensive assessment of global energy consumption to the year 2035. It forecasts the future of how we will generate our energy, based on current policies and regulations, with a focus on India and China who are rapidly increasing their energy use.

India is home to one sixth of the world’s population but accounts for only 6% of the world’s energy use. But there is an increased demand for power generation as the country undergoes modernisation, and this figure is predicted to rise to 25% by 2030. Currently one in five people in India does not have access to electricity. But the demand for oil is increasing faster than any other country in the world, and so India is looking to step up the use of low-carbon technology. India has pledged to have a 40% of its power from non-fossil fuels by 2030. A good reason for this is the estimate that currently over 95% of the population there are exposed to air that is polluted to levels about those deemed safe by the World Health Organisation. This is estimated to shorten life expectancy by about three years and the burning of fossil fuels is one of the main reasons for the pollution.

As the cost of lower carbon energy continues to fall, it also provides a more financially viable option as the costs of oil and gas production will increase. Fossil-fuel consumption benefits from subsidies that amounted to around $490billion last year worldwide whereas subsidies for renewables was $112billion.

China is the biggest carbon emitter but they are working to deploy the most renewable power generation in the world by 2030. Currently they are the world’s largest producer and consumer of coal. It has been forecast that China’s energy demand will be double that of the US by 2040 but an emissions trading scheme will be introduced there in 2017 which will decrease the use of coal.

Without the push to switch to renewables the future demand for oil and gas will drive the prices up as well as leading to dangerous levels of CO2 emissions. It is thought that the UN Climate Summit in Paris which is currently underway, will prove vital in order to ensure that energy consumption is sustainable in our rapidly developing world.