Regardless of the harmful effects of burning fossil fuels on global climate other energy sources will become more important in the future because fossil fuels could run out by the early twenty-second century given the present rate of consumption. This implies that sooner or later humanity will rely heavily on renewable energy sources. Here we model the effects of an idealized large-scale application of renewable energy on global and regional climate relative to a background climate of the representative concentration pathway 2.6 scenario.

A modelling study shows that cutting greenhouse-gas emissions has the potential to stabilize global temperature increases, but predicts that sea level will continue to rise for centuries, and rapidly so, unless aggressive mitigation measures are set in place.