Greenpeace maps way to saving Arctic from oil drilling
Greenpeace called here Tuesday for more use of renewable energy and greener cars to help protect the Arctic and other areas from being spoiled by oil drilling.
The environmental group launched an "energy roadmap" for cutting oil demand by about 80 percent, especially for transport, by making cars more energy efficient and making wider use of electric mass transit systems.
"There would be no need to exploit the Arctic and other marginal sources of oil, such as the tar sands in Canada and offshore oil in Brazil, if more renewable energy powered our vehicles and if much stronger efficiency standards for cars were adopted in Europe and elsewhere," Greenpeace said in a statement.
It called for an investment of $1.2 trillion (965.4 billion euros) a year globally in new power plants up to 2050 to implement its roadmap, noting that the sum amounted to about one percent of the world's annual GDP.
Sven Teske, a Greenpeace expert and co-author of a report titled "Energy Revolution," said the renewable power industry was quickly improving but that the car industry was dragging its feet on offering the new technologies.
Greenpeace launched the report in the German capital with the European Renewable Energy Council and the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC).
Steve Sawyer, secretary general of the GWEC, said the technology existed to eliminate fossil fuels from the electricity sector by 2050.
He said that if the political will could be mustered, wind power alone could produce about 12 percent of the world's electricity by 2020.
(c) 2012 AFP
