Towards a Renewable World

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Towards a Renewable World

• Herbert Girardet
• World Future Council

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• Defining what is necessary and then expanding
  the boundaries what is politically and
  economically possible

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A renewable world

• The main issues
• accelerating the renewable energy revolution,
• renewing local economies,
• renewing the urban habitat,
• biosphere protection and renewal,
• renewing the worlds soils for better farming and
  carbon sequestration, and
• renewing and invigorating international
  cooperation  

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Dynamics of change
Increasing Energy demand Energy costs CO2
emissions Climate instability Sea levels
Decreasing Fossil fuel reserves Natural
resources Time left for action Cost of renewable
energy
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Germanys Feed-In Tariffs, 1999 to 2007

• 2006 250,000 jobs created, 21.6bn turnover for
  RE companies, 8.7bn investment per year
• 97 million tonnes of CO2 saved
• Eco-benefit 5.40 less environmental damage per
  household/ month
• Total cost 1.20 per household/ month
• 2008 15 share of electricity consumption
• At current growth rates renewables will provide
  40 of electricity by 2020, or 100 by 2050

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Sun, wind and waves

• The earths solar income is 15,000 greater than
  our annual energy consumption
• Policies to accelerate all types of renewables
• Energy subsidiarity?
• Complementary policies to stimulate energy
  sufficiency

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Green collar jobs

• The New USA
• Barack Obama 5 million green jobs over five
  years mainly in cities
• Eliminate oil imports from the Middle East in ten
  years
• Al Gore Make the US self-sufficient in
  electricity in ten years

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Renewing transport systems

• The imperative of low carbon transport
• The potential of the solar suburb
• The huge potential of hybrid technology
• Avoidance of unnecessary travel
• The importance of compact urban form
• Localisation and interconnection
• New emphasis on cycling and pedestrian living

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Sustainable food

• Our current food system requires up to 20 times
  as much energy as the food contains
• Reducing food miles to enhance energy efficiency
  of food supply and food security
• Revitalising local agriculture
• Involving more people in a the food system
• Returning nutrients and organic matter back to
  the land

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Biosphere protection and renewal

• Biological carbon capture and storage
• From reducing GHG emissions to reducing GHG
  concentrations
• Renewing the worlds soils for sustainable food
  carbon sequestration
• The imperative of forest protection
• The need to reforest depleted areas, particularly
  in the tropics

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Renewing international cooperation

• Limits to gowth in a finite world
• Enabling the emergence of a Converging World
• Community to community collaboration
• Cost effective resource transfer
• Renewable energy as a basis for future
  development
• Understanding sufficiency

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Policies to change the world

• By being agile and inventive we can we take
  advantage of the financial environmental crisis
  
• A major opportunity for a transition to a new
  green economy
• Externalities can no longer be externalised
• Self-empowerment of local communities
• Enlightened policies linking self-interest with
  global solidarity

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Books- Cities, People, Planet Urban
Development and Climate Change, Wiley, London,
2004 and 2008- Surviving the Century Facing
Climate Chaos anmd other Global Challenges,
Earthscan, London, 2007

• www.worldfuturecouncil.org