Brussels, 13/11/2013 (Agence Europe) - If the governments decide to stick at their current climate objectives, the world is moving towards average warming of 3.6°C by the end of the century, the International Energy Agency (IEA) warned on Tuesday 12 November, on the second day of the UN climate conference in Warsaw (COP 19). WWF and the European Green party see this as proof positive that renewable energy and energy efficiency will have a key role to play in reducing the gap between the efforts required and commitments on the table up to 2020.
The prospective report of the IEA, World Energy Outlook, “stresses the need for an offensive on the energy efficiency front. This is really crucial, because we have an opportunity to avoid an economy anchored in fossil fuels and to reduce the growth of demand for fossil energy by 50% between now and 2035. The Commission must establish an ambitious energy efficiency objective for 2030. We cannot wait any longer”, said MEP Reinhard Bütikofer, co-president of the European Green party. For its part, WWF calls on all parties to COP 19 to strengthen and raise the level of ambition of the initiatives for energy efficiency and renewable energies to help save the climate. “It's clear that we aren't doing enough (…). The energy sector is the biggest source of man-made greenhouse gas emissions, so we need to urgently decarbonise it”, said Tasneem Essop, head of the WWF's COP delegation in Warsaw. (AN/transl.fl)