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ENERGY TRANSITION
By Tsvetana Paraskova
THE ENERGY TRANSITION IS GAINING MOMENTUM In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, governments and businesses around the world have made more pledges to curb their carbon footprint and reach net-zero emissions by the middle of the century. From the biggest oil and gas companies in Europe to some of the biggest economies in the world, everyone is now committed to help the fight against climate change by reducing carbon dioxide and methane emissions. A growing number of governments have laid down targets to increase electrification in transport and raise the share of renewable power sources in their energy mix.
www.ogv.energy I May 2021
Hydrogen and carbon capture and storage (CCS) are no longer vague ideas as the oil and gas industry is betting on them to provide more low-carbon energy to increasingly demanding society and governments.
the capacity and the responsibility to take decisive actions to accelerate clean energy transitions and put the world on a path to reaching our climate goals, including net-zero emissions,” Birol added.
‘Build back better’ is now in most cases synonymous to ‘build back greener’ with government incentives and programmes to boost the use of renewable and low-carbon energy sources.
As economies re-opened at the end of 2020 and economic activity started rising, global energy-related CO2 emissions were 2% higher in December 2020 than in the same month a year earlier, the IEA said in March 2021.
Global installations of renewable energy sources hit a record in 2020 despite the pandemic which slowed down economies and delayed some operations in the early months of 2020.
“The rebound in global carbon emissions toward the end of last year is a stark warning that not enough is being done to accelerate clean energy transitions worldwide. If governments don’t move quickly with the right energy policies, this could put at risk the world’s historic opportunity to make 2019 the definitive peak in global emissions,” Birol noted.
Still, the world needs much more commitment, cooperation of governments, stronger policies, and a lot more investment, if it were to stave off a rise in temperatures well above the ones set in the Paris Agreement, analysts and forecasters say.
Stronger Policies Needed To Put World On Track To Meet Paris Agreement Goals
In 2020, global emissions saw the largest annual drop on record, but this was due to the lower overall energy demand and the economic slowdown. The world is still far from doing enough to put emissions “into decisive decline,” Fatih Birol, Executive Director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), said in October last year.
Many governments – including the UK, major energy importers in north Asia including China, and the European Union – already have timelines to curb emissions and reach net zero by 2050, and in China’s case, by 2060. Most economies are set to roll out support to low-carbon energy sources and transport electrification. Policies will need to be stronger and investments from the private sector will need to rise exponentially in coming years if the Paris Agreement goals were to be met, international agencies say.
“Only faster structural changes to the way we produce and consume energy can break the emissions trend for good. Governments have
“No country can do this alone. If we want the transition to clean energy to happen quickly, the world’s major economies have to work much
Emissions Rebound after PandemicInflicted Slump
