Frederick Kempe, President and CEO of the Atlantic Council said that 2024 is going to be a real inflexion point in the energy landscape, stressing the need to provide energy solutions to the global South with the support of the North to keep pace with faster, cleaner and more renewable energy development.
In statements, on the sidelines of the 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28), at Expo City Dubai, Kempe said that the Conference will address the most significant framework of the equitable energy mix transformation. It will emphasise that COP28 is the Conference of Action as it contains the first global stocktake since the Paris Climate Agreement in 2015.
He said, ‘We have seen progress in terms of deploying more renewable energy that has exceeded expectations, as the deployment of energy has contributed to slowing the rise in global temperature, but we have not stopped the rise in temperature, so we must find decisive solutions and COP28 is the conference of solutions, and what distingui
shes it is the gathering of voices from the climate community that will enable us to achieve the goals related to decarbonisation and reach net-zero emissions by 2050. We are very optimistic about what we hear and see here at the COP28 Conference of the Parties.”
Kempe sees a bright future for nuclear energy, with safer and cheaper small modular reactors playing a key role in the clean energy mix. In this context, he pointed to the UAE’s leadership in renewable and clean energy. It possesses enormous potential in these fields and continues to diversify its environmentally friendly energy mix. The UAE also hosts the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), which reflects its actual leadership in renewable energy, making the UAE the focus of the global energy sector.
Expanding the clean energy toolbox, Kempe highlighted two emerging fields: Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) for actively scrubbing carbon from the air, and solar geoengineering, which aims to mitigate climate change through carefully controlled
human interventions.
He said, “We must put more renewable energy in place to move to net zero, and new technologies play a key role in that. I think a lot of interest should be in new technologies, from battery technologies to potential solar geoengineering and geoengineering.”
He added, “We know that the global energy landscape, as well as the UAE, will be more focused on the Global South in the coming years than we have ever had in the global energy landscape, and how we address energy poverty in a way that will not harm the planet. This is a crucial part of what we will do this year.”
He stressed that consideration will also be given to how to accelerate energy deployment while stimulating economic growth in emerging markets and how to encourage innovation using clean energy technologies, explaining that the role that innovation plays may sometimes be reduced to ensure the protection of the planet.
Source: Emirates News Agency