Renewable energy is rapidly becoming the preferred choice for new electricity generation across the globe, according to a Climate Council report released yesterday.
Entitled 'A Whole New World: Tracking the renewables boom from Copenhagen to Paris' it reveals how the world is in the midst of a dramatic energy revolution which will be further accelerated by next week's climate change summit in Paris, France.
Figures in the report show that clean energy investment grew 43 per cent since 2009, while the number of renewable energy jobs nearly doubled to 7.7 million worldwide.
Climate Council chief councillor Tim Flannery said plummeting costs and increasing jobs means there is a strong economic case for renewable energy that wasn’t clear in 2009.
“While in the past tackling climate change has been considered a moral imperative, it is now also a huge economic opportunity as countries make very significant commitments to growing renewable energy at the same time that the costs plummet,” Professor Flannery said.
“Renewable energy has overtaken fossil fuels to become the preferred choice for new electricity generation, accounting for more than half of new capacity additions in the last two years.”
Professor Flannery said the upcoming United Nations (UN) climate talks in Paris will help to build this momentum for change.
“More than 160 countries have now put in place targets to grow their renewable power," he said.
Eight of the world’s top 10 biggest greenhouse gas emitters, including India, the US and Brazil, have announced significant upgrades to their renewable plans to nearly double their supply of green energy.
The Climate Council’s chief executive Amanda McKenzie warned that while the industry is rapidly gaining traction, renewable energy must expand even faster to avoid the most dangerous impacts of climate change.
“The report shows we need to see a tripling or even quadrupling of low emissions energy by 2050 to tackle climate change,” she said.
“The renewables boom could pass Australia by despite our huge advantage as the sunniest and one of the windiest countries in the world.
“The longer we wait, the more likely we will miss out on fully accessing the benefits of this transition - the jobs, the innovation, future industries and investment.”
The report also found that the price of solar photovoltaic modules has dived 75 per cent and wind power has fallen a dramatic 30 per cent.
Moreover, the number of countries with renewable energy policy targets has almost doubled since 2009.
Just last week the UK government announced plans to close down coal-fired power plants by 2025.
Responding to the announcement Australian Wind Alliance coordinator Andrew Bray said Australia should not only follow Britain’s lead in shutting down ageing coal plants, but also drive the development of renewable energy to replace them.
“We are going through a global time of change, and Australia needs to catch the wave," he said.
"A massive 51 gigawatts of new wind power was installed around the world in 2014 alone, which is more than Australia's entire generation fleet. Advanced economies like the UK and Australia simply cannot continue to rely on or invest in coal.
“Renewables like wind and solar power in Australia are the way forward,"
Claire O’Rourke, national director of Solar Citizens, said the inevitable transition to clean, renewable energy is gathering speed.
“By using clean energy from the wind and sun, we can create healthy cities and towns, good jobs and smart investments - and a happy surprise when we open our power bills," she said.