RENEWABLE ENERGY & GLOBAL WARMING

One means of reducing carbon emissions is the development of new technologies such as renewable energy. Most forms of renewable energy generate no appreciable amounts of greenhouse gases except for biofuels derived from biomass.

low greenhouse emissions from renewable energy

Generally, emissions are a fraction of fossil-fuel-based electricity generation. In some cases, notably with hydro power - once thought to be one of the cleanest forms of energy - there are unexpected results. One study shows that a hydropower plant in the Amazon has 3.6 times larger betty green house effect per kW·h than electricity production from oil, due to large scale emission of methane from decaying organic material. This effect applies in particular to dams created by simply flooding a large area, without first clearing it of vegetation.

Therefore, converting our energy sources from fossil fuel to renewable energy such as solar energy is an important mitigation measure, reducing the increase in radiative forcing due to increasing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases.

subsidies needed for renewable energy

Currently governments subsidize fossil fuels by an estimated $235 billion a year. However, in some countries, government action has boosted the development of renewable energy technologies — for example, a program to put solar panels on the roofs of a million homes has made Japan a world leader in that technology, and Denmark’s support for wind power ensured its former leadership of that sector. In 2005, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger promised an initiative to install a million solar roofs in California.

industry leaders slowly acknowledging climate change

In June 2005, the chief executive of BT became the first head of a British company to admit that climate change was already taking place, and affecting its business, and announced plans to source much of its substantial energy use from renewable sources. He noted that, “Since the beginning of the year, the media has been showing us images of Greenland glaciers crashing into the sea, Mount Kilimanjaro devoid of its ice cap and Scotland reeling from floods and gales. All down to natural weather cycles? I think not”.

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This information is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation. It is derivative of articles on Climate Change, Global Warming and related environmental issues at http://en.wikipedia.org