Publication | Open Access
Green Energy Choices: The benefits, risks, and trade-offs of low-carbon technologies for electricity production
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2016
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Renewable energy is a cornerstone of a future of human prosperity without environmental sacrifice.The international community has recognized this.Through the Secretary-General's Sustainable Energy for All Initiative (SE4All), governments and stakeholders across the globe have demonstrated a commitment to ensuring universal access to affordable, reliable and modern energy services by 2030, while increasing the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix.With this acknowledgment, the world community has a unique opportunity to steer investments over the next two decades towards energy systems that meet the demands of an increasing population while reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions; water, air and soil pollution; and habitat loss.This report from the International Resource Panel provides a comprehensive comparison of the greenhouse gas mitigation potential of various energy generation technologies, including hydro, solar, geothermal and wind.It also examines the environmental and human health impacts of these options, and their implications for resource use.Their impacts are compared with those of fossil fuels, including coal-and gas-fired power, with and without carbon capture and storage (CCS).The report provides strong evidence that electricity generated from renewable sources causes substantially less pollution than that generated from fossil fuels.A business-as-usual expansion of fossil fuel-based generation would lead to increased pollution, with serious impacts on human health and the environment, and a doubling of GHG emissions by 2050.Meanwhile, renewable electricity generation produces only 5-6% of the GHG emissions of coal-fired power plants and 8-10% of those of gas-fired power plants.The right mix of low-carbon electricity generation technologies will help to stabilise and potentially reduce pollution and impacts on the environment, including climate change and acidification.It is crucial to determine the optimal mix of these technologies, as well as policy objectives that will support these efforts.It is my hope that decision-makers will use the scientific evidence in this report to select the cleanest, safest and most sustainable mix of energy technologies for the coming decades.