Tokyo - Halving greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 would cost 45 trillion dollars in addition, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said Friday. The Paris-based agency released a report upon request from the Group of Eight (G8) member states and proposed that innovative technology be required to achieve the goal.
In Energy Technology Perspectives 2008 report, the IEA said every year 25 gas-fired and 35 coal-fired power plants need new carbon-dioxide capture and storage technology, which would cost 1.5 billion dollars each.
The world also needs about 17,500 wind power turbines and 32 new nuclear power plants every year, while not-fully prevalent technology such as 215 million square meters of solar panels and a billion electric or hydrogen fuel cell vehicles should also be introduced, the IEA report said.
"We will require immediate policy action and a technological transition on an unprecedented scale," IEA Executive Director Nobuo Tanaka said in Tokyo. "It will essentially require a new global energy revolution which would completely transform the way we produce and use energy."
The report released ahead of the energy ministers meeting this weekend in northern Aomori would serve as the basis for discussion July 7-9 at the G8 summit meeting in Hokkaido, northern Japan.
