The energy transition can’t wait, but… can it be accelerated?
The third edition of the EDP Business Summit will be held on 7 March with a clear objective: to study how utilities, other companies and society as a whole can contribute to accelerating the energy transition. All of this with the aim of building a cleaner and more sustainable future for everyone.
The energy transition has become the great revolution of our time, but it has set us a deadline. The impact of climate change is increasingly evident and material. We have closed 2023 as the hottest year on Earth since records began, with an alarming average temperature 1.48°C above pre-industrial baselines.
Fires, floods, droughts, rising sea levels and warmer water temperatures are just some of the signs that climate change is leaving in its wake. The European Union, as a global leader in climate action, is committed to achieving climate neutrality by 2050. To achieve this goal, it is necessary to stay the course set by its own Climate Law and the Paris Agreement, in order to build a sustainable economy robust to climate risks, free of fossil fuels, with a clean and competitive technology industry, and all this through a transition that is fair for all and leaves no one behind, ensuring a healthier and safer future.
Thus, the European Commission recommends setting a target of a 90% net reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2040. Energy plays a key role in achieving this, as it is one of the main sources of CO emissions. It is therefore necessary to increase the penetration of renewables in the electricity system, with wind, solar and hydro replacing fossil fuels; and to invest in ways of storing the energy provided by renewables to prevent it from going to waste and to use it when needed. The goal is to have 90% of electricity coming from renewable sources by 2050 and at least half of energy consumption coming from electricity.
COP28, held at the end of 2023 in Dubai, achieved a historic global commitment to move away from fossil fuels and towards renewable energy. More than 130 national governments agreed to work together to triple the world’s installed renewable energy capacity. And it is achievable, with global annual additions of renewable capacity estimated to increase by almost 50% by 2023, setting the fastest growth rate in two decades.
THE BIG CHALLENGES
Although they may vary from country to country, it is undeniable that there are a number of challenges that governments must face to change this forecast and reach these 11,000 GW by 2030 and can be summarised mainly as follows: lack of visibility on long-term policies, slowness in developing administrative responses, as well as insufficient investment in grid infrastructure, which prevents clean energy from being injected more quickly. Also administrative barriers, which make the authorisation procedure cumbersome, problems of social acceptance and insufficient financing, both public and private, for emerging and developing economies.
Source:www.elmundo.es