WWF UK has backed the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) call for an ‘energy revolution’ at World Energy Outlook Conference in London.

Both agencies see the use of coal as the biggest threat to the world’s climate, with global coal use predicted as rising by 2% per year until 2030, more than any other fuel. These increases would make it extremely difficult to meet the planned emissions cuts necessary to avoid dangerous climate change in the future.

Head of Climate Change at WWF UK, Dr Keith Allott, said -

‘We do share the view of the IEA that an energy revolution is needed. What concerns us is that, despite acknowledging the damaging effect of high carbon energy sources, the IEA fails to call for an end to ‘business-as-usual’ coal. Currently, even countries such as the UK, which has positioned itself as a leader on climate change, are considering plans to develop new unabated coal-fired power stations. This would lock us into a high carbon future, when globally, our focus should be placed on developing clean and renewable energy sources. WWF-UK believes that there can be no new coal-fired power plants in developed countries without carbon capture and storage being in place from the outset.’

An alternative climate-compatible scenario aims at keeping atmospheric CO2 concentration at the less dangerous level of 450ppm. This would cost about $US 9 trillion more than ‘business as usual’ over the next 25 years, but would gain enormous pay-back in long term energy saving costs.

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