Sustainable Energy Solutions for Climate Change

We now have the technologies to transform existing energy systems based predominantly on the efficient use of renewable sources of energy. The principal barriers to this transformation are no longer primarily technological or economic, but institutional and cultural, and are maintained by powerful vested interests.

This book uniquely takes a holistic and interdisciplinary approach to the climate change and energy problem by integrating:

• the scientific motivation for climate action;
• the basic concepts of energy use, production and associated greenhouse gas emissions;
• scenarios for the transformation of the existing energy system into an energy efficient, renewable energy future;
• the key features, status, impacts and potential of the diverse ‘clean’ energy technologies;
• the strategies and policies needed for overcoming the formidable non-technical barriers to the transformation

Taking stock of the latest advances in energy efficiency and energy storage, the book provides third and final year undergraduate students and postgraduate students as well as professionals and policy makers with a wealth international case studies and examples from the US, UK, China, India, Australia, Japan and Europe.

Dr Mark Diesendorf is Associate Professor and Deputy Director of the Institute for Environmental Studies at University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia.