Shift away from fossil fuels will be wrenching, risky, ‘ugly’ and ultimately necessary — author
BOSTON — Shifting the global economy from its long dependence on fossil fuels will not follow a smooth trajectory where corporations, financial markets and other stakeholders systematically and logically adjust to new realities, regulations and economic pressures.
But there will be winners, too, as financial markets respond to mounting concern about climate change and investors begin steering billions of additional dollars toward renewable energy development, energy efficiency programs, and other products and technologies to help reduce the amount of heat-trapping gases emitted into the atmosphere.
The looming challenge for nonprofits like Ceres and its private-sector partners is finding a way to leverage a projected $36 trillion by 2050 — or roughly $1 trillion per year — that the International Energy Agency has said will be necessary to place the world’s energy economy on an environmentally sustainable path.