Solar energy

Achieving a climate-resilient future requires rapid, sustained and far-reaching transformations in energy, land-use, infrastructure and industrial systems. Large-scale expansion of renewable energy can play a critical role in meeting the world’s growing energy demands and in the fight against climate change. However, even ‘clean’ energy sources can have significant unintended impacts on the environment.

It is generally accepted that human emissions of greenhouse gases upset the thermal balance of earth-atmosphere system and ultimately lead to global climate changes. The extent of the changes will depend on future emissions of greenhouse gases and will vary between the Earth's different regions. But a central estimate for the Nordic region is that, by 2100, the temperature will have increased by about 3 degrees C, average rainfall will be 10% higher and the sea level may have raised 40cm.

Part 1 of this final report outlines current global environmental problems and serves as an introduction to the entire report. Part 2 gives the results of the Conference discussions. Chapter 1 summarizes the data and reference materials that were submitted to the Conference, and demonstrates how serious current environmental problems are by giving actual data on global warming, loss of biodiversity and others. Chapters 2 and 3 summarize the results of the discussions.