Why Switching to Renewable Energy Sources Is a Top Priority

It’s something of an unsettling fact that our society is almost entirely dependent upon fossil fuels. While the combustion of fossil fuels has been a ‘necessary evil’ for the development of most industrial nations, we have to come to terms with the reality that we can no longer use fossil fuels as the primary energy source. With the ongoing concerns about global warming and climate changes, there are many arguments for switching to renewable energy sources. The planet is on the verge of climate catastrophe, and if we want to preserve our planet, we must take immediate actions. Switching on renewable energy will help solve climate change and slow down global warming.

Even if you are not a climate change believer, you must have heard by now that the world is running low on fossil fuels supply. Over the last 200 years, the consumption of fossil fuels has increased rapidly, leaving fossil fuels reserves depleted and climate change significantly impacted. Reserves are becoming much harder to locate, and resources won’t last much longer – which is why we need an alternative solution for both our energy and climate problems.

Solar Vs Fossil Fuel generation

Some countries have already taken measures to try to prevent the global disaster and have started shifting to renewable energy, with China leading the charge in terms of installed green energy capacity worldwide. According to estimations from 2017, China’s total capacity of 618.8 GW is more than the next four countries on that list – US, Brazil, Germany, and India. Additionally, Iceland is the worldwide leader when it comes to the amount of produced energy per capita with 55,000 kWh per person per year. However, despite all of this, the share of renewable power in global energy generation is expected to grow to only 12.4% by 2023.

Alarming News

In the latest bit of bad news on climate change, it was reported that the concentration of carbon dioxide in Earth’s atmosphere has risen to a level that was last seen 3 million years ago, long before humans even appeared on earth. This means that the figure of 12.4% is unacceptable – we’re not doing enough, nor moving fast enough, to prevent the upcoming doom. To reach the broader goal, which is to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, countries would have to dramatically accelerate the transition towards clean energy over the next 12 years.

What Is the Situation in the US?

Under the Paris Agreement, former US president Barack Obama pledged to reduce United States CO2 emission 26-28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025. That was already an almost impossible task since sectors like transportation and heavy industry heavily rely on fossil fuels. Add to this the fact that President Trump has disavowed the Paris agreement altogether, and is now trying to dismantle climate regulations imposed by the Obama government. However, despite all of this, renewable energy generation in the US has almost doubled in the last 10 years. Namely, it was reported that in 2018, 742 million MWh of electricity was generated in the US, which is nearly a double of what it was back in 2008.

For now, it seems that the United States will fail to fulfill the Paris agreement. That in turn, will make it even harder for future administrations to cut down emissions by midcentury that are necessary to help keep the world well below 2 degrees of global warming.

The article is written by Hristina Nikolovska, who is passionately following stories on climate change and global warming from around the world.