BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 29. In a dire assessment, the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, has issued a stark warning about the current trajectory of global temperatures.
With temperatures already up by 1.1°C, existing policies would push us towards a catastrophic 2.7°C increase by the year 2100, well beyond the 1.5°C target established in the Paris Agreement, BCG told Trend.
The consequences of such inaction are evident in the increasing frequency of extreme weather-related events, such as the recent devastating floods in Pakistan, prolonged droughts plaguing East Africa, and wildfires ravaging multiple continents.
BCG underscores the intricate relationship between human development and access to energy, highlighting that societies face significant challenges in achieving high levels of prosperity with less than 20 MWh per year of primary energy use per capita. Shockingly, more than 775 million people worldwide still lack access to electricity.
Addressing this crisis demands a twofold approach: first, expanding access to clean energy to meet the energy needs of underprivileged regions, and second, curbing wasteful consumption through efficiency improvements.
Remarkably, despite nearly tripling global GDP since 1990, energy intensity relative to GDP has decreased by more than 34%. This decoupling of economic growth from energy consumption is attributed to three major factors: a shift from industrial to service-based economies, advancements in energy-efficient technologies, and policy changes such as fuel efficiency standards.
BCG emphasizes the vast potential for enhanced efficiency. For instance, in the United States alone, data from 2021 reveals that only one-third of primary energy was effectively utilized, with the remaining two-thirds lost to inefficiencies and energy conversion. Urgent, coordinated efforts are required to harness this untapped efficiency potential to mitigate the looming climate crisis.
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