International perspective on electricity's future

摘要

In response to requests from G8 ministers and International Energy Agency (IEA) ministers, the IEA has produced several publications which review the changes to global energy use in the context of the conclusions of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in its 2007 report on climate change. The latest in this IEA series, Energy technology perspectives 2008; in support of the G8 plan of action, was released in June and provides a wealth of information and analyses relevant to the Australian discussion of climate change policies, but from a global perspective. This article briefly considers an overview of global electricity production now, assuming present policies continue unchanged to 2050 (baseline 2050 scenario) and under two scenarios for greenhouse emissions reduction (termed the ACT and BLUE scenarios).