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SOURCE: Phys.org

DATE: January 31, 2017

SNIP: Expansion of renewable energy cannot by itself stave off catastrophic climate change, scientists warned Monday.

Even if solar and wind capacity continues to grow at breakneck speed, it will not be fast enough to cap global warming under two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), the target set down in the landmark 2015 Paris climate treaty, they reported in the journal Nature Climate Change.

“The rapid deployment of wind, solar and electric cars gives some hope,” lead author Glen Peters, a researcher at the Center for International Climate and Environmental Research in Oslo, Norway, told AFP.

“But at this stage, these technologies are not really displacing the growth in fossil fuels or conventional transportation.”

“Unless the emissions from fossil fuels goes down, the 2C target is an impossibility.”

In an informal survey last week of top climate scientists, virtually all of them said that goal is probably already out of reach.