Earth Today | AOSIS welcomes findings from World Energy Outlook
Published:Thursday | October 17, 2024 | 12:08 AM
THE ALLIANCE of Small Island States (AOSIS) has welcomed findings from the latest World Energy Outlook, which signal the possibility of keeping to the 1.5 degrees Celsius limit on rising temperatures – but only if the world sticks to the transition away from fossil fuels such as oil and gas.
“The Outlook confirms that adequate investment to support the world’s growing renewable energy capacity can end this era of fossil fuel supremacy. It also highlights that rapid action can keep the world aligned with the 1.5 degrees Celsius global warming limit,” said Ambassador Dr Pa’olelei Luteru, chair of the AOSIS.
“It is clear that failure on these fronts will lie squarely with the entrenched policies of big emitter nations,” added Luteru.
AOSIS has represented the interest of 39 small islands and low-lying, coastal developing states in international negotiations on climate change, sustainable development, and oceans since 1990.
The 2024 report, published by the International Energy Agency, has made the case for a more people-centred approach to energy security, noting that this should mean “prioritising security, resilience and flexibility, and ensuring that the benefits of the new energy economy are shared”.
“This also requires a rebalancing of power sector investment towards grids and battery storage, as proposed by the IEA [International Energy Agency] in advance of the COP291 climate conference in Baku, Azerbaijan. At the moment, for every dollar spent on renewable power, 60 cents are spent on grids and storage. By the 2040s, this reaches parity in all scenarios,” the report noted.
In addition, it said that it is necessary that more help be provided to poorer countries, communities and households in order to manage the upfront costs of change, including much greater international support.
“High financing costs and project risks are limiting the spread of cost-competitive clean energy technologies to where they are needed most, especially in developing economies where they can deliver the biggest returns for sustainable development and affordability,” the report said, adding that lack of access to modern energy is the most fundamental inequity in today’s energy system, with 750 million people – predominantly in sub-Saharan Africa – remaining without access to electricity and more than two billion without clean cooking fuels.
Meanwhile, Luteru said the global climate talks last year (COP28) had seen them ringing their own bell to signal the historic agreement to “transition away from fossil fuels”.
“Countries reaffirmed our commitment to limiting global warming to a 1.5 degrees Celsius increase and achieve net zero emissions by 2050, to avoid the most ferocious waves of global devastation. Alas, saying something is one thing, and actually meaning it is quite another,” he said.
Still, the AOSIS boss added, “small island states despair” that they will have to wait in vain for countries to do what is necessary to effect required changes.
“COP29 must be the milestone that restores the faith of the most vulnerable in the leaders who have the power to set our world on a sustainable track,” he noted, referencing the upcoming climate talks set for Baku, Azerbaijan, from November 11 to 22.