Eliminating the CO2 emissions that are warming the planet will require more innovations, technological but also financial: around thirty Ministers of Energy or Climate have been working until February 14 in Paris on the means to finance the gigantic investments necessary to the energy and climate transition.
Faced with the warming which is « happening » at the moment, the world of energy is still too much in « business as usual » and must evolve towards more « innovation », urged the president’s emissary American climate activist, John Kerry, during the 50th anniversary of the International Energy Agency (IEA).
“It is time for diplomats and environment ministers to step aside before energy ministers, industry and researchers” to advance the fight against global warming, added the Irish Minister of Climate and Environment Eamon Ryan.
Mr. Ryan is co-chairing this first high-level international meeting since COP28 in Dubai in December, where the world agreed to « transition away » from fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas), which emit greenhouse gases and are responsible for global warming.
“We need to deploy existing, profitable technologies as quickly as possible,” particularly in renewables, and “we need to bring new technologies to market faster than we are doing now,” said Mr. Kerry.
He was referring in particular to technologies, not all proven, making it possible to save or use energy more efficiently, to capture CO2, store electricity or produce hydrogen.
« Why? Because this year it’s hotter than last year and next year it will be hotter than this year. It’s happening and it’s guaranteed » by science, a- he said in front of an audience of Energy and Climate Ministers brought together by the IEA.
“Even though there has been a huge increase in clean energies such as wind and solar, this is not enough to achieve the objectives set for 2050,” added IEA director Fatih Birol.
“We need to support technologies that are not yet on the market” and the industry that produces them, he added.
Mr. Birol also called on governments to invest in innovation.
The massive investments to be made relate not only to renewable energies, according to the President of the European Commission Ursula Von der Leyen, but also to « interconnection networks », « clean tech companies » (clean technologies) and “supply chains”.
Bruno Le Maire, French Minister of Economy, Industry and Energy, co-chair of the session, pleaded for more creativity in finance, pushing the project of « European Capital Markets Union « , promoted by French President Emmanuel Macron to finance the transition in Europe.
“We can no longer rely on public debt in Europe (…) we need to rely on private financing” in order to accelerate the transition, he said. “We need a capital markets union as quickly as possible.”
“No longer a single coal-fired power station”
Mr. Kerry praised the action of China which is currently building “more electricity capacity in renewable energies than the entire world combined”.
But he regretted that the implementation of “the equivalent of 500 gigawatts of electricity production capacity in coal-fired power plants” is planned in Asia, mainly in South-East Asia in the years to come.
“Knowing what we know and knowing the reality of climate change, there should not be a single coal-fired power plant releasing CO2 into the atmosphere in operation in the world today,” said John Kerry.
This will « cancel » everything « that has been done in Europe and the United States for 15 years to reduce CO2 emissions », according to him.
To develop alternative energies to fossil fuels, global investments (public and private) will have to amount to 4.500 billion dollars per year by 2030, according to the IEA, including « at least 2.200 billion per year in emerging countries and in development.
The IEA, an intergovernmental organization attached to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), made up of countries mostly oil importers, was created in the midst of the oil crisis in the 70s to organize supplies.
The meeting is due to end on Wednesday with a communiqué setting out the IEA’s mandate « for the next two years ».
