Irena gears up for Paris climate meet

Next week, the Abu Dhabi based International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena), will join the United Nations climate change conference COP 21 in Paris with its latest findings on renewable energy, which were printed on Sunday night in the agency's second edition of REthinking Energy.
"The energy sector accounts for more than two-thirds of global greenhouse gas emissions and therefore must be the focus of climate action," said Adnan Amin, Irena director-general.
At COP 21, this year, the focus will be on keeping the increase in temperatures to maximum two degrees Celsius, which will put the renewables under the spotlight.
The energy agency considers that in order to limit the increase in global average temperatures to less than two degrees Celsius and thus prevent catastrophic climate change, the share of renewable energy must be doubled by 2030.
"The consequences of rapidly rising global temperatures will be far-reaching and devastating for humans and the environment unless urgent action is taken globally to curb emissions," stressed Amin.
According to him, global warming has constantly gone worse in the past decade, with 2015 being the hottest year in human history. If no action is taken, temperatures will increase by 4 per cent by the end of the century.
"Scientists are telling us that two degrees Celsius is the limit to avoid catastrophic consequences," said Amin.
In turn, Irena is telling governments that this can be achieved if renewables will reach 36 per cent in the total mix of energy use. This corresponds to a reduction of 8.6 Giga tonnes of energy-related carbon emissions per year by 2030.
To increase renewable energy usage by 36 per cent, global annual investments in renewables must double from the current levels to reach over US$ 500 billion by 2020 and then triple to reach US$ 900 billion from 2021 to 2030.
According to REthinking Energy, these figures are achievable.
silvia@khaleejtimes.com

• Abu Dhabi