"Dramatic" rise in renewables needed for 2C goal

OSLO (Reuters) – The share of renewable energy will have to rise “dramatically” if the world is to have a chance of limiting global warming to a maximum 2 Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) temperature rise, a leading expert said on Wednesday.

Ottmar Edenhofer, co-chair of a scientific group due to present a U.N. report on renewable energy in 2010, said clean technology such as wind and solar power needed a big role even if the world also turned increasingly to nuclear power.

“To achieve a 2 Celsius target the share of renewables has to be increased substantially and dramatically,” he told the Reuters Global Climate and Alternative Energy Summit in a telephone interview.

“This is valid across all the scenarios I have seen,” said Edenhofer, who is also chief economist of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. He gave no precise figures for the needed rise.

Reuters