As Industry Intelligence Inc notes, cleantech is accelerating as the share of solar and wind energy and biofuels took 12 years to go from 0.5 to one percent of the global energy production but only six years to double that.
In 2011, these energy sources accounted for 2.1 percent. The total emissions avoided are about about 800 million tonnes of CO2 emissions avoided, or the equivalent of Germany’s total CO2 emissions in 2011.
So cleantech is booming, and this despite many factors that could prevent a much higher support. It is time to remove the barriers to the start of the cleantech revolution.
Here are the barriers I have identified :
- the somewhat lack of subsidies compared to fossil fuels which receive billions in subsidies to keep wreck our planet and climate ;
- the overall lack of commitment in climate and sustainability. A quick look at the previous summits (Copenhagen, Rio…) will convince you of this ;
- There is no carbon tax to make countries move faster from fossil fuels ;
- the economic downturn
Let’s hope these barriers will go down as soon as possible to really make cleantech at the heart of the next Industrial revolution. We have seen that as a matter of fact, cleantech could help us on the last point….
