To stop the negative effects of climate change, they must make quick decisions management and adoption of environmental policies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and contribute to the development of the energy transition.
To do this, in the Davos Economic Forum, all the representatives of companies and institutions in the energy sector have admitted that they have not fully assumed the consequences that climate change may have and that mitigation measures must be adopted as soon as possible. What has the Davos meeting consisted of?
The situation of renewables
The original goal of this meeting was the discussion on the future of energy in a broad sense. However, all attendees recognized that climate change is such an important global problem that it has become the greatest challenge for all companies, authorities and international organizations.
In the session they intervened the president of Iberdrola, Ignacio Sánchez Galán; the Indian Minister of Railways and Coal, Piyush Goyal; the United Nations representative for sustainable energy, Rachel Kyte; the president of the Brazilian state oil company Petrobras, Pedro Pullen Parente, and the CEO of Schneider Electric, Jean Pascal Tricoire.
The energy outlook is presented as a clear opportunity for renewables, since climate change "forces" or "pressures" the entities in charge of developing clean energy to promote them. For example, Iberdrola has benefited from climate change thanks to the fact that it has increased its profits, they are more competitive and they have achieved reduce polluting gas emissions by 75% in recent years.
Energy has been used numerous times as a political weapon. This has had an impact on consumers and shareholders. However, they hope not to make mistakes again, building a new, more consistent energy policy.
The renewable paradigm is dominated by political decisions that, apart from not always being correct, do not have a clear objective. Clean energy technology already exists, it is more developed every day and is more competitive, however, there is more politics in energy and less energy politics.
Energy policies are causing the world to be increasingly interconnected. This is a positive thing, since we can export and import surplus energy to other countries. There are more and more companies that are betting on renewables; not just big companies but also the investors behind them, regulators and consumers.
Sánchez Galán recalled that 195 countries have signed the Paris Agreement against climate change, but very few have the energy policy necessary to comply with the agreements adopted.
Look for solutions
One of the possible solutions to the situation of lack of energy policy that helps with the energy transition would be the one proposed by Rachel Kyte, from the United Nations: stop subsidizing energies that actually «they don't love each other«.
In the energy transition it is important that consumers must be able to decide what energy they want, since the changes will come from them. Consumers are increasingly demanding speed and better energy conditions.
Perhaps the most necessary solution is decarbonization. After the year 2030, it is expected that it will be below 20% of the world's energy production.
Sánchez Galán replied that “it is not a question of posing the future of the sector as a struggle between oil and gas on the one hand and electricity on the other”, since both oil and gas have a “great future”.
Goyal, representative of the Government of India, whose Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, delivered the opening speech of the forty-eighth edition of the World Economic Forum today, also referred to the necessary transition to alternative energy sources, and the search for solutions to meet the objectives of the Paris Agreement.
The energy transition is increasingly necessary in the face of the effects of climate change.