Six countries now generate 70-100 % of their energy from renewables !

A recent study by Stanford University researchers predicted that the world could be powered entirely by renewable energy in just 20 to 40 years from now.

Iceland generates the most clean electricity per person on earth, with 100% of its energy coming from renewable sources.

Costa Rica is among the top renewable energy users, with 99% of its electricity needs coming from hydroelectric, geothermal, and wind. 

Close behind is Norway, with 98% of electricity coming from renewable resources, mostly hydropower.

Thanks to a supportive regulatory environment and a strong partnership between the public and private sector, Uruguay has invested heavily in wind and solar power, without using subsidies or increasing consumer costs. And as a result, it now boasts a national energy supply that’s 95% renewables-powered, achieved in less than 10 years.

Thanks to government investment in wind, solar, and geothermal energy, Nicaragua's aim of being 90% renewables-powered by the year 2020 appears to be an achievable goal.

Kenya has invested heavily in geothermal energy production, which accounted for more than half their energy mix in 2015. They also have Africa’s largest wind farm, providing another 20% of their installed electricity generating capacity.

In 2015, Sweden threw down the gauntlet with an ambitious goal: eliminating fossil fuel usage within its borders. They’ve increased their investment in solar power, wind power, energy storage, smart grids, and clean transport.

Denmark aims to be 100% fossil-fuel-free by 2050 and it plans to use wind power to achieve that goal. They already set a world record in 2014, producing almost 40% of their overall electricity needs from wind power and the latest figures put them firmly on track to meet their first goal of obtaining 50% of their electricity from renewables by the year 2020.

Using a combination of grid-connected wind farms and standalone turbines, the United Kingdom now generates more electricity from wind farms than from coal power plants. 

The United States of America has one of the world’s largest installed solar photo-voltaic capacities and an installed wind energy capacity second only to China. But it is also one of the world’s biggest energy consumers, which tends to cancel out much of its renewable capacity. Nevertheless, if more attention was paid to renewables over fossil fuels, it has been estimated that the U.S. could reduce its emissions by almost 80% in only 15 years, without impacting on consumer electricity costs.

Acknowledgement : The above post has been reworked from information given on this page.

The Danger from Black Soot for Rising Temperatures...

The UN reports that 50% of the emissions causing global warming are from non-CO2 pollutants.

Although not a greenhouse gas, Black Carbon (soot) has emerged as a leading contributor to rising temperatures worldwide. Recent scientific studies have found black carbon – a component of soot that comes from the burning of fossil fuels and plant materials – to be a key cause of climate change. Black carbon has a strong warming effect both in the atmosphere, and when it lands on snow, ice caps and glaciers, where it absorbs the sun’s heat, reduces reflectivity and causes widespread and faster melting.

Norway’s foreign minister said action on black carbon was even more urgent than that on CO2: “Even if we turn the rising curve of greenhouse gas emissions in the coming years, the reduction will not occur quickly enough to preserve the polar and alpine environments. We must address short lived climate pollutants such as black carbon.”

Because black carbon remains in the atmosphere for only a few days – unlike other greenhouse gases, which may remain in the atmosphere for over a century – reducing black carbon emissions may be among the most effective near-term strategies for slowing global warming and avoiding some of the most imminent climate change tipping points.

Black carbon’s role in Arctic warming : Most black carbon that falls in the Arctic comes from North America, Europe and Asia. Black carbon stays in the atmosphere for just days to weeks, but it can do a lot of lasting damage. The contribution to warming by one gram of black carbon is 100 to 2,000 times more than one gram of CO2 on a 100-year timescale. A 2011 study by scientists from NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies found that as much as a quarter of Arctic warming is caused by black carbon.

Black Carbon comes from diesel engines, industrial smokestacks and residential cooking and heating stoves. There is need to set stricter standards for diesel engines. Replacing primitive cooking stoves with modern versions that emit far less soot could quickly end the problem. Controlling traffic in the Himalayan region should help ease the harm done by emissions from diesel engines.

Climate and Clean Air Coalition was launched in 2012 to address pollutants that are short-lived in the atmosphere such as black carbon, methane and hydrofluorocarbons which responsible for a substantial fraction of current global warming with particularly large impacts in urban areas and sensitive regions of the world like the Arctic.

Approved initiatives include: fast action on diesel emissions including from heavy duty vehicles and engines; the upgrading of old inefficient brick kilns that cause black carbon emissions; accelerating the reduction of methane emissions from landfills; speeding up cuts in methane and other emissions from the oil and gas industry; and accelerating alternatives to hydrofluorocarbons through fast-tracking environmentally-friendly and cost effective alternatives and technologies.