Since 2002 the amount of wind, solar, and geothermal electricity in the energy mix throughout the world has risen from nearly non-existent levels to something that shows up in energy statistics. Despite this important increase, these sources of electricity still count for a modest amount of the electricity in the world’s largest economies. So twenty years after the first Earth Summit in Rio, it is time that world leaders return to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for the Rio+20 Earth Summit and step up their game on renewable electricity.
Countries, companies, cities, and individuals need to commit to increasing the amount of electricity production from these sources so that they account for 15 percent of total electricity produced in 2020.
The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is releasing a new report — Delivering on Renewable Energy Around the World — which shows the progress of each of the G20 countries since 2002. The report concludes that significant progress has been made since 2002 – when countries last met for an Earth Summit – but much more needs to be done. When leaders meet in Rio they can help unleash the potential of renewable electricity.
Some countries are rising to the top. As of 2011, the European Union (E.U.) has the most electricity produced from these sources, with Germany the most out of the G20 countries. Other countries like the U.S., China, Mexico, and Brazil lag behind. While all these countries have made important progress since 2002 they are still significantly behind other countries like New Zealand, Spain, Portugal, and Iceland (see map).
These rising trends are showing up in the investment in clean energy in each of these G20 countries. Since 2002, the G20 countries have cumulatively invested over $860 billion in clean energy, according to data from Bloomberg New Energy Finance. The majority of this investment has occurred in the E.U. ($291 billion), followed by the U.S. ($215 billion), China ($197 billion), Brazil ($52 billion), and India ($40 billion).
Progress since 2002, but not fast enough. Even with this important progress, the G20 countries aren’t on track to triple the amount of electricity produced from these sources. On current trends, the G20 countries are on a trajectory to produce less than 4 percent of their electricity from these sources by 2015 and less than 6 percent in 2020. So they have their work cut out to take these investments to the next level (see figure).
Countries can unleash even more at Rio+20. At the Earth Summit 2012, civic and corporate stakeholders must commit to do more to increase electricity production from renewable sources. While a global agreement to spur this deployment is certainly helpful, it is more important that these key actors come to Rio with individual commitments to increase the amount of wind, solar, geothermal, tidal, and wave power throughout the world to 15 percent of total electricity by 2020—more than doubling what is predicted under current trends.
Will these countries deliver on renewable electricity? With around one week before heads of government, CEOs, and other leaders arrive in Rio it is essential that they don’t arrive with an empty suitcase. They better arrive with real commitments that help take renewable electricity to the next level.
* This report was co-written with Aaron Haifly, an intern with NRDC.
** Map produced by Philip Goo, NRDC.
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The feed-in tariff is a fancy way of saying that utilities pay a generous per-kilowatt-hour rate to individuals or companies that install renewable energy technology and use it to produce electricity. By pushing electricity back into the power grid, rather than drawing it out, average people are paid for the power their efforts generate. Citizens who install these technologies and use them to produce surplus electricity can make a tidy sum by selling their clean energy back to the grid—and these prices are guaranteed for years to come.
This means that greening efforts in Germany are not relying on slow-moving corporations. Instead, they have created green energy entrepreneurs in unstoppable numbers. Individuals can take the initiative and install renewable energy sources for their own profit, and they are guaranteed to get paid a very high rate by their utility for every bit of electricity that they make and put back into the grid. This effort has created hundreds of thousands of green jobs and billions of dol-lars renewable energy in Germany, leading to more than 10 percent of German electricity being produced from renewable technologies in 2010."
http://www.truthdig.com/arts_culture/item/better_than_we_found_it_20120521/
We need to face this as a world. and act accordingly.