Coal, the dirtiest fuel in terms of carbon emissions used for generating power, has provided 47 percent of new worldwide electricity in the past decade, while gas accounted for 33 percent, the according to the International Energy Agency.
By comparison – and despite the fact that global investments in renewable energy have risen dramatically over the last decade – plants that use renewable sources to produce electricity account for only 6.5 percent of the total.
The IEA’s Clean Energy Progress Report notes that countries have spent $17 billion on renewable energy and energy efficiency research during the last 10 years — less than a third of the $56 billion directed to nuclear energy research.
Meanwhile, as much as $22 billion has gone toward fossil fuel research during the same period.
The report describes a brief period – for all intents and purposes, calendar year 2009 – when governments saw renewable energy as a way to claw their way back from the global economic crisis. But once various public stimulus programs ran their course, spending levels began to decline, in some cases dramatically.
The IEA, in effect, is urging that this new trend be reversed, and that fossil fuel subsidies ought to be phased out, while governments once and for all establish a price for carbon emissions.
At the same time, “Higher spending levels [for renewable energy] must be sustained over the long term and spending priorities need to shift [away from nuclear and fossil fuels.”
One they return home, the IEA said, energy ministers should become advocates in their respective countries for more generous incentives for private sector investments in energy projects, using tax credits, “innovative public/private partnerships,” and “market-creating mechanisms.”
The right combination of policies and could deliver nothing short of “a clean energy revolution,” the report said.
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