UN
Climate Change
Global
Climate Action
13
April
2021 | |
High Level Climate Champions
Newsletter | |
The Electric Route to Zero
Emissions | |
Clean,
healthy, sustainable electricity will fuel the
wider economy’s transformation to zero emissions
in the 2040s. Exponential changes in the past
decade have set a clear and tangible route to
aligning the power sector with a 1.5°C
temperature limit in the 2020s - bringing other
sectors in line through clean electrification,
creating jobs, boosting public health and
alleviating poverty and
inequality.
The proven
technologies needed for net-zero energy mostly
already exist, and their costs are falling.
Solar and onshore wind power are now the
cheapest sources of new-build generation for at
least two-thirds of the global population, and
new projects are often cheaper than running
existing fossil fuel generation, according to
BloombergNEF. The cost of batteries,
which will be needed to store and balance
greater amounts of renewable power, fell by half
between 2018 and 2020.
In fact, more
renewable energy capacity was added in 2020 than
ever before, beating previous estimates,
accounting for more than 80 percent of all new
electricity capacity, according to the International Renewable Energy
Agency
(IRENA). A tender for seven large-scale
solar
power plants in Saudi Arabia this month set a new
world record low power price of US$0.0104/kWh.
And 47
scientists
recently issued a joint declaration calling for
100 percent renewable energy by 2030 - and
making clear that it is possible.
But at the
same time, as UN Secretary-General António
Guterres has said, we need to end our “deadly
addiction to coal”, by ceasing
construction of new coal plants immediately, and
redirect
overseas finance from coal, oil and gas
to clean energy projects. Meanwhile, investment
in the energy transition needs to increase by 30
percent compared to planned investment, to $131
trillion between now and 2050, according to the
IRENA.
Financial
institutions are increasingly seeing the risk of
putting money into fossil fuel projects that
will be left stranded before the end of their
lifespan, and re-focusing their investments. “In
America, no bank will fund a coal-fired plant.
In Europe, no bank will fund a coal-fired
plant,” John Kerry, US special climate envoy,
told the International Energy Agency’s recent
IEA-COP26 Net Zero Summit.
Around 135
globally significant banks and insurers have
announced plans to divest from coal mining or
coal-fired power generation, including in
Europe, Japan, South Korea, South Africa, the US
and Australia, according to the Institute for Energy Economics and
Financial Analysis. The Net Zero
Asset Managers Initiative has tripled in its
first few months to now cover more than a third
of global assets under management - and those
members will now be pressuring their asset
owners to get on a robust, transparent course to
zero emissions by 2050.
Policymakers
are catching on, too. The US is poised to set a
target this month to decarbonize the US power
grid by 2035, joining 23 countries with similar
goals for 100 percent clean energy (mostly in
Europe and the Pacific Islands) between 2030 and
2050. Local governments are moving faster, with
653 cities committed to fully renewable energy
in municipal operations or city-wide, REN21
has found.
Some energy
companies that are getting ahead of the
transformation, including new Race to Zero
members India’s
ReNew Power
and Germany’s E.ON. India’s leading
renewable energy company, ReNew committed last
week to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions
by 2050 by improving its energy efficiency,
increasing renewable energy supply and reducing
network waste. E.ON announced a science-based
target to decarbonize its direct emissions by
2040 and indirect by 2050, as it joined the
Business Ambition for 1.5°C
alliance.
| |
The Renewable
Opportunity | |
A faster
shift to carbon-free energy has the potential to
drive a stronger recovery from the health and
economic crisis of Covid-19. But to fulfill it,
governments and the private sector need to
ensure that their plans include support,
skilling and social services that will carry
along - and lift up - the workers and
communities who currently rely on the fossil
fuels industry.
Every US$1
million invested in renewables creates three
times as many jobs as it would in fossil fuels,
according to McKinsey. In small and
vulnerable island states like the
Maldives,
investment in renewable energy can bolster
energy independence and reduce the high costs
and exposure to volatility that comes with
imported fuels such as diesel.
It will also
strengthen public health. Air pollution from the
burning of fossil fuels is responsible for one
in five premature deaths worldwide - or nearly 9
million. The health impacts of air pollution
also add to higher health costs,
hospitalizations and lost working
hours.
But there are
risks from the transition away from fossil
fuels, too. If it doesn’t equitably distribute
the costs and benefits of climate action, it
could result in the loss of 6 million gross jobs
by 2030, mostly in the energy sector, according
to the World
Resources Institute. It also needs to be
forged with an eye towards widening access to
affordable energy. Nearly 800 million people
still lack access to energy - and investment
still falls short of what’s needed for universal
access by 2030, according to Sustainable Energy For
All.
“Covid-19 has
created a once-in-a-generation opportunity: we
can choose to go with business-as-usual, rely on
fossil fuels and inefficient technologies, in an
attempt to restart our economies or we can
actually choose to recover better and put clean
energy techs and innov at the heart of our
efforts to deliver sustainable development,”
Damilola Ogunbiyi, CEO of Sustainable Energy For
All, told the IEA-COP26
conference. | |
- Carbon dioxide and
methane emission
levels surged
in 2020, despite Covid-19 lockdowns, the US
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
found.
- The World Bank and
International Monetary Fund plan to launch a
platform to advise poor countries on funding
climate and conservation activities, as part of
a push to link such spending to debt relief -
known as green
debt swaps,
Reuters reported.
- The world entered the
2020s with greater commitment, potential and
public support for climate action than ever
before - the challenge now is to rapidly harness
that promise into emissions cuts. This Climate
Strategies report distils key findings in 10
recent influential reports, providing a
valuable
one-stop resource highlighting the most
effective, science-backed approaches to reducing
emissions.
- The prospect for
electric
trucks becomes much more realistic with fast-charging
technology, according to the Stockholm
Environment Institute, in a report challenging
the idea that heavy battery electric freight
trucks are largely
unfeasible.
| |
| | | | |
