Reading 1/1:
2345678
Additionally, renewable energy could empower millions of poor and vulnerable people who lack access to reliable, affordable, and clean modem energy services. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said in a message to the Beijing International Renewable Energy Conference, which opened Monday. Annan said that rising oil prices have hit oil-importing developing countries especially hard and underscore the need for alternative energy supplies. According to the REN21 report, government support for renewable energy is growing rapidly. At least 48 countries now have some type of renewable energy promotion policy, including 14 developing countries. Typically, they include targets to ensure that renewable sources generate 5-30 per cent of energy use in a given country by around 2010-2012.
F
The renewable sector's prospects appeared to receive a further boost Monday, when China announced it was raising its target for reliance on renewable energy even as it acknowledged that coal would remain its primary source for electricity for decades to come. Renewable energy should account for 15 per cent of national consumption by 2020. China had previously aimed to get 10 per cent of its energy from renewable sources by 2020.
G
Next Question
Next Reading
1
Mandates for blending biofuels into vehicle fuels have been enacted in 20-plus states and provinces worldwide as well as in three key countries - Brazil, China, and India - the report said.Government leadership has ensured market success, according to REN21, which is composed of representatives of governments and non-governmental organisations. Market leaders in renewable energy in 2004 included Brawl in biofuels, China in solar hot water, Germany in solar electricity, and Spain in wind power, the report said.
H
The fastest growing energy technology in the world is grid-connected solar photovoltaic (PV), existing capacity of which blossomed by sixty per cent per year from 2000-2004, to cover more than 400.000 rooftops in Japan, Germany, and the United States, it found. Wind power came second, with generating capacity growing by 28 per cent last year with almost seventeen gigawatts installed as of 2004. Production of ethanol, biodiesel, and other biofuels exceeded 33 billion litres in 2004, when ethanol displaced about three per cent of the 1.200 billion litres of gasoline produced globally.
An estimated $500 million goes to developing countries each year as development assistance for renewable energy projects, training, and market support, with the German Development
Finance Group (GDFG), the World Bank Group, and the Global Environment Facility (GEF) providing the majority of these funds, and dozens of other donors and programmes providing the
rest, the report said. More than 4.5 million "green" power consumers in Europe, the United States. Canada, Australia, and Japan purchased renewable electricity in 2004, it added. Asia is
seen as a vast market for renewable energy as it seeks to meet growing demand for power to feed rapid economic expansion amid runaway oil prices.
