Earth Today | Extreme weather events a problem for energy security – report

THE LATEST World Energy Outlook has exposed a variety of challenges to energy security, not the least of these being that energy infrastructure is facing increased risks from extreme weather events associated with climate change and which have been negatively affecting countries, including Caribbean small island developing states (SIDS).

Caribbean SIDS are among the most vulnerable to climate risks, including extreme weather events, the likes of which was experienced with the passage of Hurricane Beryl earlier this year. With already-struggling economies and the reality of their small size and geographic location, climate change and energy insecurity become a clear and present danger.

According to the 2024 report published by the International Energy Agency (IEA), it is important to recognise that energy security is about more than just addressing traditional risks to oil and natural gas.

“It also means ensuring access to affordable energy supplies; anticipating emerging risks in the electricity sector; shoring up supply chains for clean energy technologies and the critical minerals required to make them; and tackling the rising threats that extreme weather events pose to energy systems,” explained Dr Faith Birol, executive director of IEA, in the foreword of the report.

With geopolitical tensions also listed among the major risks to energy security and the identified need for coordinated action on reducing emissions, the report has reminded of the need for a clean energy transition.

“The increasingly visible impacts of climate change, the momentum behind clean energy transitions, and the characteristics of clean energy technologies are all changing what it means to have secure energy systems,” the report said.

“A comprehensive approach to energy security therefore needs to extend beyond traditional fuels to cover the secure transformation of the electricity sector and the resilience of clean energy supply chains. Energy security and climate action are inextricably linked: extreme weather events, intensified by decades of high emissions, are already posing profound energy security risks,” it added.

The report has also noted that the signs are good for progress with clean energy sources and for keeping rising temperatures at bay.

“Demand for energy services is rising rapidly, led by emerging and developing economies, but the continued progress of transitions means that, by the end of the decade, the global economy can continue to grow without using additional amounts of oil, natural gas or coal,” it said.

“This has not been the case in recent years: despite record clean energy deployment, two-thirds of the increase in global energy demand in 2023 was met by fossil fuels, pushing energy-related CO2 (carbon dioxide) emissions to another record high,” the report noted.

Still, the report said, “growth in clean energy and structural changes in the global economy, particularly in China, are starting to temper overall energy demand growth, not least because a more electrified, renewables-rich system is inherently more efficient than one dominated by fossil fuel combustion (in which a lot of the energy generated is lost as waste heat)”.

“Outcomes in individual years can vary in practice depending on broader economic or weather conditions, or in hydropower output, but the direction of travel under today’s policy settings is clear. Continued growth in global energy demand post-2030 can be met solely with clean energy,” it added.

The transition to clean energy, including solar and wind, is seen as an essential part of the global response to climate change. This is so since traditional fuel sources, including oil and gas, are responsible for greenhouse gas emissions that fuel the warming of the planet and trigger other climate impacts, with potentially devastating consequences for SIDS and other vulnerable countries.

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