Using more renewable energy is definitely the best “go green” option available to the world. By using more renewable energy sources world would decrease the need for fossil fuels, and less fossil fuels used would also cause less environmental problems, most notably less impact to climate change problem.
Some renewable energy sources like wind energy, solar energy and biofuels are becoming increasingly popular energy options, though they still need to develop technologically to end the dominance of fossil fuels. Fossil fuels still have two major advantages on their side: lower costs and powerful lobbies.
Renewable energy still lacks the cost-competitiveness with fossil fuels but the distance between the two is shrinking with each new year. If we for instance look at the cost comparison between solar power and coal, we can see that in average solar power is two to three times more expensive option, and many people are still not willing to pay significantly more money for renewable energy, despite the climate change, as well as some other big environmental threats like air pollution.
And we also must not forget the powerful fossil fuel lobbies such as oil lobbies. Fossil fuels have been dominant sources of energy for many years so the amount of power that fossil fuel lobbies have today over politics shouldn’t really surprise us. These lobbies are fully aware of their power, and are not afraid to use it to get major political decisions going their way. What do you think why is world still struggling so much with agreeing the new climate change deal?
Renewable energy despite being the best available green option will first need some time to mature in order to become competitive with fossil fuel industry. We are talking about at least couple of decades, and large number of energy experts will even tell you that fossil fuels are likely to remain dominant energy sources throughout this entire century.
The only real question is whether our environment can wait for so long. Environmental problems are not only growing in number but also in magnitude, and further delay to do something for our environment may even lead us to the point of no return. Hopefully renewable energy will get enough time to lead the world into the “green revolution”. But on the other hand, the climate change is ticking bomb that could easily go off before the green revolution.
Besides being the best available green option, renewable energy can also provide better energy security than fossil fuels. Fossil fuels will be depleted in years to come, and once this happens renewable energy needs to be fully ready to meet the global energy demand.