Review: Renewable Energy in an Increasingly Uncertain Future

Abstract

A number of technical solutions have been proposed for tackling global climate change. However, global climate change is not the only serious global environmental challenge we face demanding an urgent response, even though atmospheric CO2 ppm have risen from 354 in 1990 to 416 in 2020. The rise of multiple global environmental challenges makes the search for solutions more difficult, because all technological solutions give rise to some unwanted environmental effects. Further, not only must these various problems be solved in the same short time frame, but they will need to be tackled in a time of rising international tensions, and steady global population increase. This review looks particularly at how all these environmental problems impact the future prospects for renewable energy (RE), given that RE growth must not exacerbate the other equally urgent problems, and must make a major difference in a decade or so. The key finding is that, while the world must shift to RE in the longer run, in the short term what is more important is to improve Earth’s ecological sustainability by the most effective means possible. It is shown that reducing both the global transport task and agricultural production (while still providing an adequate diet for all) can be far more effective than converting the energy used in these sectors to RE.