Amid the rising global challenge of climate change and energy shortages, experts have called for urgent action and reliable alternative energy solutions during the second webinar on the feasibility discussions for a global carbon pricing organized jointly by the International Finance Forum (IFF), the Task Force on Carbon Pricing in Europe, and the Paulson Institute on Oct 11, 2021.
The three organizations jointly organized a series of seminar to pave the way for a debate on forming a global carbon pricing mechanism during the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow this November. The first webinar was held in July.
Over 40 high ranking officials, policy makers and scholars from China, the European Union and the United States and representatives of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and International Energy Agency (IEA) participated in the webinar on the fight against climate change ahead of the upcoming Glasgow COP26.
"In considering the global context of climate change, we probably need to think about our direction of fast actions on climate change. At the same time we also need to jointly raise the concern and review the fragility of some renewable energies and the affordability of future energy supply, which is very important for global economies,” said Zhu Xian, vice president and general-sectary of IFF.
"All the floods and fires on our continents since last summer show the need for urgent and efficient steps to prevent global warming. Greenhouse gas emissions are responsible for of the rising global temperatures of about 35 billions of tons every year. If we want to have a chance to save lives on earth, the critical objective of mankind should be to stop the carbon pile-up on our planet as soon as possible and reverse the trend at the fastest possible pace. In the future the global demand for energy will keep increasing in emerging markets due to their legitimate needs arising from increasing population and higher standards of living,” said Edmond Alphandery, chairman and founder of the Task Force on Carbon Pricing in Europe and former Finance Minister of France.
The gap between the increasing demand for energy and the urgent goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions are challenges for all international leaders, he added.
"To fulfill the goals of the Paris Agreement, there is only one narrow path for organizations , a significant and much more rapid shift in the energy mix between fossil fuel s and carbon free sources of energy such as renewables and nuclear,” said Alphandery.
The webinar had three sessions with the first one stressing on the urgency to curb the growth in the global stocks of carbon. At this session experts and policy makers discussed the issue first by assessing the size of the global endeavor ahead, as well as the various policy options, their relative impact and efficiencies as well as their funding, considering that the starting point of the analysis has to be how to replace the fossil fuel energy production with "clean" energy, which depends one way or the other on the relative costs for which carbon pricing is the key.
The use of renewable energy has increased rapidly in most countries around the world in recent years. However, according to the analysis of International Energy Agency (IEA), the investment in low-carbon energy sector should be doubled or increased further in the coming decade on the current base, which is about US$2 trillion a year globally, to achieve the net zero goal. The investment growth in emerging markets should increase more rapidly, than that in developed countries, which is a clear challenge during the energy transition process.
As a consensus, carbon pricing has been widely regarded as an ideal incentive for promoting low-carbon energy sector and reversing the trend of carbon emissions, according to IMF research. The IMF is working on an international carbon price floor proposal that sets different minimum carbon prices for countries at different developing levels to get emission on track for the 2 centigrade goal against global warming, while addressing competitiveness concerns.
The second session threw light on discussions centered around the five major levers for reversing the trend of carbon emissions globally, the carbon border mechanism in the EU, the decarbonization approach of the cement industry, the implementation of Carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technique, the approach of reducing methane emissions, which is another major greenhouse gas and fostering the production of clean energy with nuclear power as an important alternative.
Participants also discussed the social issues due to redistribution effects during the energy transition period and then explored the most efficient actions to be implemented in this regard.
The webinar ended with reflections on the implementation of the global leadership to be put in place in order to achieve the rapid decarbonization which has, without any doubt, to rest on a tripod: the European Union, China and the United States.
For global leadership, it is the critical moment for governments to shift from what to do to how to do it effectively and timely. We need to see time-bond action road-maps sector by sector as that will leave an important footprint in our decarbonization efforts,” said Zhu Xian. He also encouraged governments to demonstrate leadership via efficient implementation of the policies and funding low-carbon sectors for emerging markets, facilitating the commercialization and affordability of decarbonization innovations and technologies and supporting related technology transformations.