Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
Share Renewable-energy transition ‘only true path to energy security’
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Or
Renewable-energy transition ‘only true path to energy security’
The renewable energy transition “is the only true path to energy security”, United Nations secretary-general António Guterres has asserted, adding that the current energy crisis, precipitated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, underlined the need to accelerate rather than slow the transition.
In a recorded address to the 2022 edition of the Berlin Energy Transition Dialogue (BETD), Guterres warned that the world was not on track to achieve the goal of carbon neutrality by mid-century, or limiting the global temperature rise to 1.5 °C.
“Last year, global energy-related carbon dioxide emissions grew by 6% when they should be falling. In fact, with current national commitments, emissions are projected to increase by almost 14% this decade,” he said, describing the global energy mix as broken.
Guterres was also not alone in linking the issue of peace and security of energy supply to the energy transition, with International Renewable Energy Agency director-general Francesco La Camera, German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck and German Foreign Affairs Minister Annalena Baerbock doing likewise.
Habeck said that energy, climate, foreign and security policies were “intertwined” and that Germany would move to expand renewable energy and energy efficiency to reduce its dependence on Russian fossil fuels – a dependence that he described as the consequence of past mistakes.
"You cannot steal the wind. The sun belongs to no-one,” he said, when underlining the importance of renewable energy to Germany’s fast-tracked efforts to reduce its dependence on Russian coal, oil and gas.
Germany was also moving to diversify it sources of gas supply through the construction of new liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminals, which formed part of a strategy to reduce Russian gas consumption by 30% by the end of the year and to be largely independent of Russian supplies by mid-2024.
Besides diversification and savings, Germany is also accelerating its ramp-up of hydrogen and hydrogen imports.
Habeck told BETD delegates that Germany’s fertiliser production was also dependent on gas and hinted at possible ammonia imports to displace that dependency and to reduce the prospect of a food-security crisis.
The selection of Brunsbüttel as the site for an LNG terminal with a regasification capacity of eight-billion cubic metres is also believed to be part of a plan to shore up supply to the Yara fertiliser facility, which is also located in Brunsbüttel. However, this could be supplemented by ammonia imports, including green ammonia derived from green hydrogen.
La Camera, who used the occasion to release Irena’s ‘World Energy Transitions Outlook 2022’, said that an acceleration of the energy transition was essential for long-term energy security, price stability and national resilience.
Ramping up renewables, together with an aggressive energy efficiency strategy, also represented the most realistic path toward halving of emissions by 2030, which was crucial to limiting the rise in the global average temperature to 1.5 °C.
“Investing in new fossil fuel infrastructure will only lock-in uneconomic practices, perpetuate existing risks and increase the threats of climate change,” La Camera warned.
The outlook document itself said that investments of $5.7-trillion a year to 2030 were needed for the world to be compatible with the 1.5 °C climate goal.
Renewables would have to scale-up massively across all sectors from 14% of total energy today to around 40% in 2030.
The outlook sees electrification and efficiency as key drivers of the energy transition, enabled by renewables, hydrogen and sustainable biomass.
“Green hydrogen needs to move from niche to mainstream by 2030,” La Camera said.
Meanwhile, Baerbock also used the platform to warn against the creation of new dependencies, noting that wind farms and power lines required minerals that were sometimes produced in countries that were “not flawless democracies” and which had “authoritarian tendencies”.
“Clean energies...
View all episodes
By Engineering NewsThe renewable energy transition “is the only true path to energy security”, United Nations secretary-general António Guterres has asserted, adding that the current energy crisis, precipitated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, underlined the need to accelerate rather than slow the transition.
In a recorded address to the 2022 edition of the Berlin Energy Transition Dialogue (BETD), Guterres warned that the world was not on track to achieve the goal of carbon neutrality by mid-century, or limiting the global temperature rise to 1.5 °C.
“Last year, global energy-related carbon dioxide emissions grew by 6% when they should be falling. In fact, with current national commitments, emissions are projected to increase by almost 14% this decade,” he said, describing the global energy mix as broken.
Guterres was also not alone in linking the issue of peace and security of energy supply to the energy transition, with International Renewable Energy Agency director-general Francesco La Camera, German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck and German Foreign Affairs Minister Annalena Baerbock doing likewise.
Habeck said that energy, climate, foreign and security policies were “intertwined” and that Germany would move to expand renewable energy and energy efficiency to reduce its dependence on Russian fossil fuels – a dependence that he described as the consequence of past mistakes.
"You cannot steal the wind. The sun belongs to no-one,” he said, when underlining the importance of renewable energy to Germany’s fast-tracked efforts to reduce its dependence on Russian coal, oil and gas.
Germany was also moving to diversify it sources of gas supply through the construction of new liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminals, which formed part of a strategy to reduce Russian gas consumption by 30% by the end of the year and to be largely independent of Russian supplies by mid-2024.
Besides diversification and savings, Germany is also accelerating its ramp-up of hydrogen and hydrogen imports.
Habeck told BETD delegates that Germany’s fertiliser production was also dependent on gas and hinted at possible ammonia imports to displace that dependency and to reduce the prospect of a food-security crisis.
The selection of Brunsbüttel as the site for an LNG terminal with a regasification capacity of eight-billion cubic metres is also believed to be part of a plan to shore up supply to the Yara fertiliser facility, which is also located in Brunsbüttel. However, this could be supplemented by ammonia imports, including green ammonia derived from green hydrogen.
La Camera, who used the occasion to release Irena’s ‘World Energy Transitions Outlook 2022’, said that an acceleration of the energy transition was essential for long-term energy security, price stability and national resilience.
Ramping up renewables, together with an aggressive energy efficiency strategy, also represented the most realistic path toward halving of emissions by 2030, which was crucial to limiting the rise in the global average temperature to 1.5 °C.
“Investing in new fossil fuel infrastructure will only lock-in uneconomic practices, perpetuate existing risks and increase the threats of climate change,” La Camera warned.
The outlook document itself said that investments of $5.7-trillion a year to 2030 were needed for the world to be compatible with the 1.5 °C climate goal.
Renewables would have to scale-up massively across all sectors from 14% of total energy today to around 40% in 2030.
The outlook sees electrification and efficiency as key drivers of the energy transition, enabled by renewables, hydrogen and sustainable biomass.
“Green hydrogen needs to move from niche to mainstream by 2030,” La Camera said.
Meanwhile, Baerbock also used the platform to warn against the creation of new dependencies, noting that wind farms and power lines required minerals that were sometimes produced in countries that were “not flawless democracies” and which had “authoritarian tendencies”.
“Clean energies...