False economy What’s in it for me? Understand what makes the

Renewable energy from solar, wind and 
water needs to replace energy from fossil 
fuels.
If you turn on the lights in your home, where 
does the electricity come from? Most likely, it 
was generated by burning fossil fuels. Nearly 80 
percent of the world’s electricity comes from 
fossil fuels such as coal, gas and oil, all of which 
contain massive amounts of carbon. 
But if we’re serious about reversing global 
warming, we need to radically change this. 
Luckily, energy is all around us, stored in the 
rays of the sun and the motions of wind and 
water. The technology to harvest these 
renewable energies is becoming increasingly 
efficient, making them competitive with fossil 
fuels.
Let’s take a closer look at them.
Wind energy spearheads the clean energy 
movement. Not only are wind farms fast and 
cheap to build, they’re also very efficient. Take 
the 32 offshore wind turbines installed near the 
coast of Liverpool, England: a single rotation of 
one of them is enough to meet one household’s 
daily electricity needs. 
Denmark, meanwhile, already supplies 40 
percent of its electricity through wind power. If 
other countries were to follow suit, it might be 
possible for onshore wind energy to take care of 
21.6 percent of global energy needs by 2050, 
which would reduce carbon dioxide by an 
incredible 84.6 gigatons.
Solar energy is another important renewable 
that’s already saving 330 million tons of CO2 
annually. Solar panels generate electricity from 
the photons contained in the sun’s rays. They 
can be grouped together in big solar farms or 
installed separately on rooftops. Such rooftop 
microgrids are a great independent electricity 
source for the 1.1 billion people worldwide that 
are not connected to a centralized power grid. 
Improving the storage, transmission and 
distribution of energy will be another challenge in 
shifting the energy equation. In almost all forms 
of production, but especially in producing 
electricity from gas or coal, the majority of 
energy is lost in the form of heat. Cogeneration 
systems can put this excess heat to work by 
diverting and using it for district heating, hot 
water and ventilation.
Research, development and financial aid will be 
needed to spread these climate-friendly 
technologies. In 2015, the global fossil fuel 
industry received more than $5.3 trillion in direct 
and indirect subsidies. If that money were put 
into renewable energies instead, we would be 
well on our way to saving the planet.