Our Plan to Stop the Oil: 95% Renewables by 2050

Want a way to stop the corruption and pollution that the fossil fuel
industry is wreaking on our planet? We've seen a better future, and
here's our plan to get there:
the Energy [R]evolution.

The best way to stop an oil gush? Keep it in the ground. If you think
that's impractical, or that it means shivering in the dark, or millions
of people without energy, or millions of people without jobs, you'd be
forgiven for thinking that. It's the line that we've all been fed by Big
Oil and King Coal. It's wrong on all counts.

Greenpeace teamed up with more than 30 scientists and engineers from
universities, institutes and the renewable energy industry to create our
Energy [R]evolution Scenario. Using only existing technologies, it
charts a course by which we can get from where we are now, to where we
need to be: decreasing CO₂ emissions after 2015; 95%
renewable electricity by 2050; a phase out of nuclear power; 12 million
jobs by 2030, with a third more jobs in the global power supply sector
than in a business as usual scenario. The scenario respects natural
limits, decouples growth from fossil fuel use, and proposes an
investment system in which costs are shared fairly under a global
climate regime. It also means finally providing energy to the
two billion people currently without reliable access to energy services.

Learn
more about the Energy [R]evolution.

Why a [R]evolution? It's an evolution, AND a revolution. (And yes,
electronics geeks, that's the symbol for [r]esistance there as well.)

We
need a [r]evolution because business as usual is not going to stop the
tens of thousands of barrels of crude oil spilling into our
waters, scores of workers losing their lives to accidents in coal mines
around the world, or the countless other disasters we are all facing
due to our reliance on dirty energy.

Jobs

The Energy [R]evolution scenario outlines how to create about
12 million jobs, with 8.5 million in the renewables sector alone, by
2030. If we continue under business as usual, global renewable
power jobs would be only 2.4 million of the global power sector's 8.7
million jobs. By implementing the Energy [R]evolution 3.2 million or
over 33% more jobs globally will be created in the power sector alone.
If that isn't enough to convince you consider this - the overall annual market
for renewable technology will increase from around US$100 billion
today, to more than US$600 billion by 2030.


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Figure 1: global employment

Emissions

Global CO₂ emissions under the Energy [R]evolution
scenario would peak in 2015 and drop afterwards. If compared with 1990, CO₂
emissions will be more than 80% lower by 2050 if the energy
supply is based almost entirely on renewable energies. By 2050 around
95% of electricity could be produced by renewable energy.

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Co2 emissions

Figure 2: CO2 emissions per capita

Greenhouse Development Rights

At the core of the Energy [R}evolution will be a change in the way
that energy is produced, distributed and consumed. It will also mean
connecting the 2 billion people currently living without electricty. Decentralised
energy systems, where power and heat are produced close to the
point of final use, will avoid the current energy wastage during
conversion and distribution. Investments in "climate infrastructure" as
well as super grids to transport large quantities of offshore
wind and concentrating solar power, are essential to making the
Energy [R]evolution a reality.

The sustainable future of the planet is rooted in the investment in
people and local communities who can install and maintain renewable
energy sources, rather than further subsidising dirty and finite fossil
fuels. We need to create a system in which investment costs are
shared fairly under a global climate regime. One such mechanism
is the Greenhouse Development Rights framework (GDR) which calculates
national shares of global greenhouse gas obligations based on a
combination of responsibility (contribution to climate change) and
capacity (ability to pay).

Policy changes

To make the Energy [R]evolution a reality and to avoid dangerous
climate change, we are demanding the following policies and
actions are implemented in the energy sector:

1. Phase
out all subsidies for fossil fuels and nuclear energy. 2. Internalise
the external (social and environmental) costs of energy production
through 'cap and trade' emissions trading. 3. Mandate strict
efficiency standards for all energy consuming appliances, buildings and
vehicles. 4. Establish legally binding targets for renewable energy
and combined heat and power generation. 5. Reform the electricity
markets by guaranteeing priority access to the grid for renewable power
generators. 6. Provide defined and stable returns for investors, for
example by feed-in tariff programmes. 7. Implement better labelling
and disclosure mechanisms to provide more environmental product
information. 8. Increase research and development budgets for
renewable energy and energy efficiency

The challenge

Despite the decline in
support for offshore oil drilling as a result of the Deepwater Horizon
disaster, a recent Pew
Research Center Poll of the American public shows a *decline* in
support for funding for alternative energy as well.

Now, a
decline in support for nuclear we can understand: the failure of
multiple safety technologies and the poor response to an ecological
emergency are good reasons not to trust a technology that relies on
deadly fuel to boil water.

But let's look at those numbers. At
73%, a healthy majority of Americans support more investment in
alternatives. So why is the US government not delivering a big time
investment in alternatives as a way out of the nightmare of dependence
on oil, big oil slicks, pollution, corruption, poisoned fishing grounds,
and an energy mix that's choking the future to death?

Why indeed?

Sign up -
Join the Energy [R}evolution and join the more than 5 million
Greenpeace subscribers worldwide who are asking this question of our
elected leaders, demanding an end to subsidies for fossil fuels and
investment in clean, renewable technologies.

An alternative future isn't just possible -- it's happening. Help us
ensure it gets here in time.