Global warming worries to boost renewables

OSLO (Reuters) – Three decades after former U.S. President Jimmy Carter experimented with solar panels on the White House roof, grim U.N. warnings about climate change may kick-start wider global use of renewable energy.

“The political willingness to act is now significantly higher,” Achim Steiner, head of the U.N. Environment Program (UNEP), told Reuters.


Governments from Japan to Germany are already subsidizing energies such as wind, hydro, biofuels, geothermal, solar or tidal power, spurred by worries about security of supply, climate change and high oil prices at about $60 a barrel.

Steiner said warnings by the world’s top climate scientists in a February 2 report that blamed mankind more clearly than ever for causing global warming — mainly by emitting greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels — would be a big new spur.

Washington Post