Adopt green tech by 2014 to avert climate calamity

GREEN technologies can prevent catastrophic climate change, but only if we commit to them by 2014. Miss the deadline and we risk runaway global warming and economic meltdown.

That’s the conclusion of a report published this week by the environment group WWF, which says green technologies will have to grow by 22 per cent each year for the next four decades. Such growth would be the “fastest industrial revolution witnessed in our history,” says Kim Carstensen of WWF. The result would be a 63 per cent drop in emissions of key greenhouse gases between 1990 and 2050 – enough to prevent global warming exceeding the 2

The report, written by Karl Mallon and colleagues at the Australian insurance industry consultant Climate Risk, warns that only three green energy technologies out of 20 assessed are growing fast enough: wind, solar photovoltaics and biodiesel. The reindustrialisation will cost $17 trillion worldwide by 2050, of which $7 trillion will go towards renewable energy technologies and the rest towards energy efficiency, low-carbon agriculture and sustainable forestry.

New Scientist