UN chief says clean energy transition ‘unstoppable’
United Nations: With $2 trillion flowing into global clean energy last year, the energy transition is “unstoppable,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said, noting that the figure was $800 billion more than fossil fuels and up almost 70 per cent in 10 years.
New data from the International Renewable Energy Agency shows that solar photovoltaic, not so long ago four times the cost of fossil fuels, is now 41 per cent cheaper and offshore wind 53 per cent cheaper, Guterres said on Tuesday in a special address on climate action titled “A Moment of Opportunity: Supercharging the Clean Energy Age,” which was delivered alongside a new UN technical report drawing on global energy and finance bodies.
Over 90 per cent of new renewables worldwide produced electricity for less than the cheapest new fossil fuel alternative, he said.
“This is not just a shift in power. This is a shift in possibility,” the UN chief pointed out.
According to Guterres, the carbon emissions saved by solar and wind globally are almost equivalent to what the whole European Union produces in a year. “But this transformation is fundamentally about energy security and people’s security. It’s about smart economics,” delivering decent jobs and public health, and advancing the Sustainable Development Goals, he said.
The report shows how far the world has come in the decade since the Paris Agreement sparked a clean energy revolution, and highlights the vast benefits and actions needed to accelerate a just transition globally.
While the energy transition is unstoppable, the transition is not yet fast enough or fair enough, said the UN chief.
“Meanwhile, the climate crisis is laying waste to lives and livelihoods,” Guterres warned.
He mapped out six “opportunity areas” to speed the transition: ambitious national climate plans, modern grids and storage, meeting soaring demand sustainably, a just transition for workers and communities, supercharging the energy transition with trade and investment, and mobilising finance to emerging markets, Xinhua news agency reported.
“This is our moment of opportunity,” said Guterres, urging reform of global finance, stronger multilateral development banks and debt relief, including debt-for-climate swaps.
“The fossil fuel age is flailing and failing. We are in the dawn of a new energy era,” he said.