Climate warming up despite rise in renewable energy

Renewable energy reached an all time high in 2007. The global climate, however, fared less well.

Global policy network REN 21 have just released the Renewables 2007 Global Status Report, with input from an international team of more than 40 researchers. The researchers found that during 2007 more than $100 billion was invested in renewable energy capacity, manufacturing plants, and research and development.

Renewable electricity generation capacity across the globe reached around 240 gigawatts, up by 50% compared to 2004. The largest contributor to this generation is wind power, which grew by 28% in 2007, and reached 95 gigawatts.

REN21’s chair, Mohamed El-Ashry, said of the findings: “So much has happened in the renewable energy sector during the past five years that the perceptions of some politicians and energy-sector analysts lag far behind the reality of where the renewables industry is today.”

However, in spite of the rise in renewables, research by NASA scientists found that 2007 was equal with 1998 for being the second warmest year in a century. Average global temperature was 14.57 degrees Celsius. This is nearly 0.6 degrees higher than the average between 1951 and 1980.

James Goddard, director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, said: “As we predicted last year, 2007 was warmer than 2006, continuing the strong warming trend of the past 30 years that has been confidently attributed to the effect of increasing human-made greenhouse gases.”

NASA’s records have all eight of the warmest years occuring since 1998, and the 14 warmest years all occurring since 1990.