Emerging technologies such as batteries, carbon capture, utilisation and storage and bioenergy will be essential for realising the green recovery.
Making the case for a sustainable and resilient post pandemic recovery, a so called ‘grand coalition of Ministers, CEOs, investors and key leaders’ participating in the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) first Clean Energy Transitions Summit, agreed that accelerating the move to greener energy is critical.
Delegates from around the world attending the live-streamed event discussed a number of topics, one of these being conclusions from the IEA’s Sustainable Recovery Plan which sets out 30 actionable, ambitious policy recommendations and targeted investments. The IEA asserts that the plan, developed in cooperation with the International Monetary Fund, would boost global economic growth by 1.1% each year, save or create 9 million jobs each year and avoid a rebound in emissions, putting them in structural decline. This plan would require global investment of $1 trillion annually over the next three years. Delivering this plan would require the scale up of critical emerging technologies such as batteries, carbon capture, utilisation and storage and bioenergy.
There were also high-level panel discussions covering: an inclusive and equitable recovery and a resilient and sustainable electricity sector.
With the UK holding the presidency of COP26, which will take place during November 2021, Alok Sharma, Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, called on all countries to be ambitious with their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). These arose from the 2015 Paris Agreement and outline the steps that each nation will take to reduce its emissions.
‘Ahead of COP26 we have set out five areas that need particular attention,’ Sharma said. ‘The first is energy, then transport, nature-based solutions, adaptation and resilience, and, tying it all together finance. With the power sector counting for a quarter of global emissions, the clean energy transition is central to tackling climate change.’
Highlighting the need for international cooperation Sharma told delegates ‘The UK itself as invested over £1 billion in clean power programmes in developing countries in the last five years, and other countries here today have made great contributions too. So thank you to everyone who’s played a part.’
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