We seem to live in a polarized world: rich vs. poor, good vs. evil, east
vs. west, right vs. left.
It= s as if one side of
an argument needs the other to strike a balance.
The energy debate is similar. There are the pragmatists those that see
today's trends continuing into the future in a business-as-usual model.
And there are those who project change — seeing an energy future
based on a renewables intensive global scenario. The respectable agencies
on each side of this debate have remarkably similar acronyms, the IEA
(International Energy Agency) and the EIA (Energy Information Agency of
the US Dept of Energy).
How can these projections be so different from two such credible sources?
It's a matter of perspective. The business-as-usual forecast plots energy
use and GDP growth over decades and sees an ever increasing use of fossil
fuels, nuclear energy and increasing carbon dioxide emissions. On the
other hand, the IEA report states that the world's energy use is not sustainable,
and therefore requires urgent and decisive action to shift towards renewable
energy and technologies.
Where the IEA says that renewables
could grow fourfold, the EIA projects that renewables
will grow from 8% to 9% share. Whether we will fix the climate change
issue will be determined by which side wins this debate.
People always ask me how GENI's doing? I tell them that more nations
are interconnecting than ever, and that wind and solar are the fastest
growing energy sectors today on the planet... but it's not fast enough.
Renewable portfolio standards, buy-down programs, feed-in laws, production
tax credits, net metering, green star appliances are all important —
and we will still need to do more. In every nation, we must accelerate
the pace of positive change, and seek all avenues to drive this shift
on our planet. You support is helping us make that happen.
In partnership for the planet,
