As negotiators continue discussions at the Durban climate talks, environmentalists have taken encouragement from the recent proclamations of what, on the face of it, would appear to be an unusual ally.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) was founded in 1974 in the wake of the 1973-1974 oil crisis, to advise member states of the OECD on related issues of energy security and economic development. In the past, the IEA has taken some criticism for allegedly underestimating the viability of, and need for, alternative energies in favor of more traditional power generation such as coal or nuclear. As recently as January 2009, the Energy Watch Group, a coalition of scientists and politicians set up to analyze official energy industry predictions, accused the IEA of "institutional bias towards traditional sources of energy and using 'misleading' data to undermine the case for alternative sources of energy, such as wind and solar."
If that were the case, it certainly is not any longer.
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Earlier this year, the agency projected that solar energy could produce most of the world's power by 2060; at the beginning of November, it added that the development of renewables was being held back by over $400 billion of "wasteful" fossil fuel subsidies and that ending such subsidies was the most important policy step toward limiting the impacts of global warming.
"Without a bold change of policy direction, the world will lock itself into an insecure, inefficient and high-carbon energy system," the IEA warned. Unless action is taken within five years, it continued, then the door to holding global average temperature increases below 2 degrees C (3.5 F) will be "closed forever." Delaying action, the agency added, is "a false economy: for every $1 of investment in cleaner technology that is avoided in the power sector before 2020, an additional $4.30 would need to be spent after 2020 to compensate for the increased emissions."
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Furthermore, the IEA concluded in a new book released last week, the necessary alternative technologies are not only available, they are increasingly viable and are, in many cases, flourishing. Hydro power was responsible for 16 percent of total power generation in 2009, and other renewable electricity technologies grew by nearly 75 percent over just four years.
Said the agency's executive director Maria van der Hoeven: "Renewables already play a central role in fostering sustainability and energy security, and their significance will only grow."
IMAGE:
A train carrying several million dollars of high quality coal for export to China waits on the tracks outside of a coal processing plant near Blair, West Virginia. Environmental activists, historians, and a few local West Virginia residents have protested mountain top removal and the plans to strip mine for coal Blair Mountain. (Corbis)
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