Renewables risk being a bolt-on rather than true energy substitute
View on Financial Times website“'There is this idea that we went from wood, to coal, to gas and oil, then to nuclear and now we’re going to renewables,' says Richard Newell, president of the think-tank Resources for the Future, who drew attention to the point in articles and a speech last year.
'If we look in terms of shares [of total energy supplies], then we do see exactly that. But that’s misleading when what matters for the environment is not the shares but the aggregate levels.'
He adds that 'there has never been an energy transition', in the sense of old fuels being replaced by more advanced ones. As each new energy source has arrived, it has been added to the ones already in use."
