Experts discuss how to build a carbon-free energy industry

At recent Guardian roundtable discussion, experts talked about how the energy sector can bring down dependence on fossil fuels and reduce carbon emissions

With the UN Conference on Climate Change (COP) in Paris just days away, a global strategy for reducing carbon emissions is tantalisingly close. Current commitments on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are due to run out in 2020 and governments are convening in Paris to agree a roadmap for what happens in the next decade and beyond. For any such agreement to work, however, it must include a transition from high-carbon, fossil-fuelled energy production, to one where power comes from clean, renewable energy.

There are some indications that the energy transition is under way. The International Energy Agency (IEA) recently announced that renewable energy accounted for half of all new power plants in 2014, while large oil companies cancelled 80 drilling projects worldwide in 2015. But the IEA also calculates the world is still on course for global warming of 2.7C before the end of the century, significantly above the danger threshold of 2C, with "major implications for us all". The transition, therefore, must happen sooner and faster.