For additional information, go to the global warming impacts page. Climate change is likely to have wide-ranging and mostly adverse impacts on human health, with significant loss of life. In order to reduce pollution and prevent damage to the environment and public health, we need to dramatically reduce our consumption of fossil fuels. Fortunately, clean energy sources such as solar energy can help meet rising energy demands. For more information on the environmental benefits of solar energy, please visit the Opportunities for Emissions Savings in the US page.
Solar energy is clean energy .
Using solar energy to replace the use of traditional fossil fuel energy sources can prevent the release of pollutants into the atmosphere. Using solar energy to supply a million homes with energy would reduce CO 2 emissions by 4.3 million tons per year, the equivalent of removing 850,000 cars from the road. To highlight the environmental benefits of solar energy, EPA developed a solar calculator , which calculates how much pollution can be prevented by using photovoltaics, solar water heaters and solar heated swimming pools. Solar energy uses fewer natural resources than conventional energy sources . Using energy from sunlight can replace the use of stored energy in natural resources such as petroleum, natural gas, and coal.