We are in the midst of a renewables revolution. Solar panels, for example, are 1,000 times cheaper than they were 50 years ago, with the International Energy Agency recently declaring that in many locations around the world solar is ‘the cheapest source of electricity in history.’
A new perspective on decarbonising the global energy system draws on over a decade of research to explain why the more we deploy renewables, the faster their prices are likely to drop. This has profound implications for the potential cost and optimal pace of our transition towards net zero.
At this launch event, the panellists consider new evidence on the importance of continuing renewables’ current growth rates for the next decade, and discuss the huge environmental, economic and social benefits this could bring.
This event is organized by Chatham House and the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, University of Oxford.
Participants
Dr Matthew Ives, Senior Researcher at the Oxford Martin Post-Carbon Transition Programme and lead author of A new perspective on decarbonising the global energy system
Professor J. Doyne Farmer, Director of the Complexity Economics programme at the Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School and Baillie Gifford Professor in the Mathematical Institute at the University of Oxford
Jiangwen Guo, Senior Research Fellow, Energy, Environment and Resources Programme, Chatham House
Moderator: Antony Froggatt, Senior Research Fellow and Deputy Director, Energy, Environment and Resources Programme, Chatham House
