By AFP
The vital transition to a zero-carbon economy is likely to be a long and rocky road. So-called green energy is booming, but not fast enough to curb climate change, which is accelerating at an alarming pace as oil, gas and coal consumption soar.
Solar, wind, biomass, geothermal, hydro: over the past decade, global production capacity of renewable energies has increased fourfold.
Aside from dams of more than 50 megawatts, renewables capacity has reached 1,650 gigawatts, compared with 410 GW in 2009, according to a survey by the Frankfurt School of Management and Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) ahead of the UN Climate Summit on September 23.
The main reason is the spectacular increase in their cost competitiveness — since 2009, the price of energy generated by solar panels has plummeted by 81 percent and that of electricity generated by terrestrial wind farms has plunged by 46 percent.
