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Green economy needs boost, U.N. says

U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu (R) looks at tubes carrying algae, a promising oil alternative, while touring China's innovative, 'new energy' giant ENN's showroom and campus in Tianjin on July 17, 2009. Ending his first official visit to China, Chu said the two nations had agreed to plan joint studies on ways to improve the energy efficiency of buildings, a major issue in addressing ChinaÕs contribution to climate change. (UPI Photo/Stephen Shaver)
U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu (R) looks at tubes carrying algae, a promising oil alternative, while touring China's innovative, 'new energy' giant ENN's showroom and campus in Tianjin on July 17, 2009. Ending his first official visit to China, Chu said the two nations had agreed to plan joint studies on ways to improve the energy efficiency of buildings, a major issue in addressing ChinaÕs contribution to climate change. (UPI Photo/Stephen Shaver) | License Photo

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates, May 10 (UPI) -- Industrialized nations need to make renewable energy a more attractive option to keep climate change in check, a U.N. report from Abu Dhabi says.

A U.N.-backed special report on renewable energy resources says that renewable energy sources like wind and solar energy could meet as much as 80 percent of the global energy mix by 2050 if major economies create the right incentives.

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"Industrialized nations need to create the right policy conditions and incentives so that the development and installation of clean energy technologies also receive a major boost in their own energy mixes," said Christiana Figueres, the executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, in a statement.

The findings suggest that if major economies embrace renewable energy fully, greenhouse gas emissions could stay low enough to keep climate change in check.

Figueres said that for significant change in the global energy mix to happen, nations must start using renewable resources "on a very large scale."

"It is also clear that ambitious national policies and strong international cooperation are together the key to the swift and extensive deployment of renewable energies in all countries," she added.

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