Climate change irreversible in 5 years, says IEA….Fiona Harvey
The world is likely to many new fossil-fuelled power stations, energy-guzzlin factories and inefficient build ings in the next five years tha it will become impossible t hold global warming to saf levels, and the last chance o combating dangerous climat change will be lost for ever according to the most thoroug analysis yet of world energ infrastructure.
Anything built from now o that produces carbon will con tinue to do so for decades t come, and this lock-in effec will be the single factor mos likely to produce irreversibl climate change, the world’ foremost authority on energ economics has found. If thi infrastructure is not rapidl changed within the next fiv years, the results are likely t be disastrous.
The door is closing, Fati Birol, of the Internationa Energy Agency, said. If w don’t change direction now o how we use energy, we will en up beyond what scientists tel us is the minimum (for safety) The door will be closed forever.
Every month now counts: i the world is to stay below 2C of warming, which scientists regard as the limit of safety, then emissions must be held to no more than 450ppm of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere; the level is currently around 390ppm. But the world’s existing infrastructure is already producing 80% of that carbon budget, according to a new analysis by the IEA, published on Wednesday. This gives an ever-narrowing gap in which to reform the global economy on to a low-carbon footing.
If current trends continue, and we go on building high-carbon energy generation, then by 2015 at least 90% of the available carbon budget will be swallowed up by our energy and industrial infrastructure. By 2017, there will be no room for manoeuvre at all, according to the IEA’s calculations. gns
* If we don’t change direction now on how we use energy, we will end up beyond what scientists tell us is the minimum (for safety). The door will be closed forever…..FATIHBIROL , IEA