27 June 2020
As governments try to
kick-start their economies, the UN is calling for recovery plans to be built
around low-carbon technologies, to avoid a return to fossil fuel-based business
as usual.
Islands at the
forefront
Some of the countries
and regions at the forefront of this wholescale shift to renewables are
islands, where the need to avoid the significant cost of importing fossil
fuels, such as oil and gas, provides added motivation.
Mauritius, for
example, is planning to generate over a third of its electricity from renewable
sources within the next five years. Projects supported by the UN Development
Programme (UNDP), will be an important part of this transition, bringing an additional
25 Mega Watts of solar power to Mauritius, including a mini-power grid in
Agalega, one of the outer islands.
At the current pace, it would take the world
forever to come anywhere near a no-carbon system. Rana Adib, Executive
Director, REN21
As well as reducing
pollution, this shift to clean energy is expected to aid economic recovery,
with new jobs in areas such as the production, installation, and maintenance of
renewable energy equipment, from solar panels, to batteries and wind turbines.
Another added benefit
is energy security: with such a high dependence on imported oil, price
fluctuations can make budgeting difficult, and any interruption to supply can
have serious consequences. “Home-grown” energy from renewable sources can make
the energy grid more reliable, and more resilient.
The Pacific US State
of Hawaii is planning to go even further and become a trailblazer for the rest
of the United States, by going completely renewable by 2045. As Hawaii State
Governor, David Ige, explained to UN News, their commitment is now moving to
the mainstream: “at the time we enacted the law to commit to 100 per cent
renewables, no other community had done anything similar and at the National
Governors’ Association, people were generally very surprised.
They thought that it
was so beyond possible that it was a foolish undertaking. Now, California has
embraced the commitment to 100 per cent clean renewable energy and other states
are contemplating doing the same. I’m proud that Hawaii has really inspired other
states and communities.”
Time to change the
entire energy system
As economies recover
post-pandemic, following these examples will be essential to turn the tide and,
as a new report from REN21 – a renewable energy think tank that includes the UN
Environment Programme (UNEP) and UN Development Programme (UNDP) amongst its
members – shows, remarkable progress has been made by the renewable energy
industry, where costs are falling, and clean energy use is increase.
However, this good
news is currently offset by the fact that global energy use is rising, and is
being powered, in the main, by fossil fuels. Following the release of the
report, on 16 June, Rana Adib, REN21’s Executive Director, underlined the fact
that the pandemic-related emissions drop barely makes a dent in the long-term
problem of climate change, and an overhaul of the entire energy system is
needed:
“Even if the lockdowns
were to continue for a decade, the change would not be sufficient. At the
current pace, with the current system and current market rules, it would take
the world forever to come anywhere near a no-carbon system.”
The report warns that
many recovery programmes include commitments to stick with dirty, polluting
fossil fuel systems: whilst some countries are phasing out coal, others
continue to invest in new coal-fired power plants. In addition, funding from
private banks for fossil fuel projects has increased each year since the
signing of the 2015 Paris climate agreement, totalling some USD 2.7 trillion
over the last three years.
“Some directly promote
natural gas, coal or oil. Others, though claiming a green focus, build the roof
and forget the foundation,” warned Ms. Adib. “Take electric cars and hydrogen,
for example. These technologies are only green if powered by renewables.”
Clean is
cost-effective
Nevertheless,
Mauritius and Hawaii show that a green option is not only possible, but
actually a better deal than a fossil-fuel based recovery plan, especially when
the true costs, including air pollution, climate change effects and traffic
congestion, are factored in.
A new book from the
World Bank, Technology Transfer and Innovation for Low-carbon Development,
shows that most of the emissions reductions needed to keep global warming to
1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels, can be achieved if existing,
commercially proven low-carbon technology is adopted on a massive scale.
As Inger Andersen, the
Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) explains, “renewables
are now more cost-effective than ever, providing an opportunity to prioritize
clean economic recovery packages and bring the world closer to meeting
the Paris
Agreement Goals. Renewables are a key pillar of a healthy, safe
and green COVID-19 recovery
that leaves no one behind.”
When Global Trends in
Renewable Energy Investment 2020, a report from UNEP, The Frankfurt School, and
Bloomberg New Energy Finance, was released in June, it further underlined the
plummeting costs of clean energy, highlighting the fact that “putting these
dollars into renewables will buy more generation capacity than ever before”,
and help countries deliver on stronger climate action.
“If governments take
advantage of the ever-falling price tag of renewables to put clean energy at
the heart of COVID -19 economic recovery, instead of subsidizing the recovery
of fossil-fuel industries”, said Ms. Andersen, “they can take a big step
towards clean energy and a healthy natural world, which ultimately is the best
insurance policy against global pandemics.”
An opportunity for a
cleaner world
The economic slowdown
resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic has seen a significant fall in harmful
greenhouse emissions and, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA),
2020 will see a drop of around eight per cent.
This has given us an
idea of what a cleaner world might look like, but it is only a temporary
respite: it has also had devastating consequences, including the shuttering of
entire sectors, and unemployment for millions of people.
Now, with countries
and regions like Mauritius and Hawaii investing in policies, programmes and
initiatives to get people back to work, there is an opportunity for a more
sustainable approach, with renewable technologies at its heart. The question is
whether the international community will seize this opportunity, or stick with
the devil they know.
