Green grids can deliver clean energy on the scale demanded by IPCC report

Commenting on the IPCC report, Nicholas Dunlop, Secretary-General of the Climate Parliament, said:

“Today’s IPCC report underlines the desperate urgency of ending humanity’s addiction to fossil fuels. One message that comes through loud and clear is the need for a massive acceleration in the rollout of solar, wind and other renewable energy sources in all parts of the world.

“The Green Grids Initiative that was launched at the Glasgow summit by the Prime Ministers of India and the UK, now endorsed by 92 governments, showed how this can be done. There are almost infinite solar resources in the world’s deserts, and vast amounts of wind power in places like the North Sea. If we build clean energy superhighways connecting these locations to our cities and factories, and connecting different time zones to lengthen the solar day for everyone, we can generate more than enough clean energy to power the entire world economy. This is the idea contained in Prime Minister Modi’s favourite phrase, ‘One Sun One World One Grid.’ As those leaders said in Glasgow, enough energy reaches the earth from the sun in a single hour to power the world for a whole year.

“At this moment when Europe is urgently looking to diversify its energy sources, this has to be part of the solution. Small-scale sources like rooftop solar must be combined with large-scale desert solar power stations and huge wind farms. Companies like SunCable and Xlinks are showing the way. SunCable has already won agreement from the governments of Singapore, Indonesia and Australia to deliver vast quantities of Australian desert solar power to Singapore through undersea cables. Xlinks is proposing a similar connection to bring gigawatts of solar and wind power from the Moroccan desert to Britain. Governments should be actively encouraging many more projects like these.

“If we move fast, there may still be time to stay within a global carbon budget that can avoid the worst consequences of climate change. By the standards of scientific discourse, the scientists of the IPCC are shouting from the rooftops that if we don’t change course now, those consequences will hit us like a freight train.”

The Climate Parliament is an international cross-party network of Members of Parliament and Congress, which first conceived the Green Grids Initiative. More information can be found at www.greengrids.world.