March 5, 2007—Three recent reports confirm that the Earth is warming, and that energy efficiency and renewable energy can go a long way to cut greenhouse gas emissions and otherwise reduce the effects of the climate change, according to the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE).
Working Group I of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) adopted the Summary for Policymakers of the first volume of “Climate Change 2007,” also known as the Fourth Assessment Report. It concludes that the Earth is unequivocally warming, and that the observed temperature increase since the mid-20th century is very likely due to greenhouse gas emissions caused by human activities. The report—produced by some 600 authors from 40 countries—concludes that human influences can now be discerned in ocean warming, larger temperature extremes, and changing wind patterns.
Meanwhile, a report from Greenpeace International and the European Renewable Energy Council asserts that renewable energy and energy efficiency can meet half the world’s energy needs by 2050. The report, called “energy [r]evolution,” claims that the US could cut its greenhouse gas emissions by nearly 75 percent in the same timeframe, and that it will be economically beneficial to do so.
That conclusion is supported by a similar report from the American Solar Energy Society (ASES), which asserts that the US could cut its greenhouse gas emissions between 60 and 80 percent by 2050 through the use of energy efficiency and renewable energy. The report is titled “Tackling Climate Change in the US: Potential Carbon Emissions Reductions from Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy by 2030.”
