GENEVA –
The head of the UN climate company says the war in Ukraine “could also be seen as a blessing” from a local weather perspective as a result of it is accelerating the event of and funding in inexperienced energies over the long run — regardless that fossil fuels are getting used at a time of excessive demand now.
The feedback from Petteri Taalas, secretary-general of the World Meteorological Organization, got here because the world is dealing with a shortfall in energy wants — prompted partly by financial sanctions towards key oil and pure gasoline producer Russia — and costs for fossil fuels have risen.
That has led some nations to show rapidly to options like coal. But rising costs for carbon-spewing fuels like oil, gasoline and coal have additionally made higher-priced renewable energies like photo voltaic, wind and hydrothermal extra aggressive within the energy market.
The energy crunch has additionally led many massive consuming nations in Europe and past to provoke conservation measures, and speak of rationing has emerged in some locations.
Taalas acknowledged that the war in Ukraine has been a “shock for the European energy sector,” and has prompted an upturn in the usage of fossil energies.
“From the five- to 10-year timescale, it is clear that this war in Ukraine will velocity up our consumption of fossil energy, and it is dashing up this inexperienced transition,” Taalas stated.
“So we’re going to make investments way more in renewable energy, energy-saving options,” and a few small-scale nuclear reactors are more likely to come on-line by 2030 as “a part of the answer,” he stated.
“So from local weather perspective, the war in Ukraine could also be seen as a blessing,” Taalas added.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and different leaders within the UN system have repeatedly made the purpose “that in addition to the tragic human impacts, the battle underscores the rising prices of the world’s fossil gasoline dependancy, and the pressing must speed up the shift to renewables, to guard individuals and planet,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric stated.
Taalas was talking as WMO issued a brand new report that stated the provision of electrical energy from cleaner sources of energy must double inside the subsequent eight years to curb a rise in global temperatures.
The newest “State of Climate Services” annual report — primarily based on contributions from 26 completely different organizations — focuses this yr on energy.
Taalas stated the energy sector presently is answerable for about three-quarters of emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases, and he referred to as for a “full transformation” of the global energy system.
He warned that local weather change is affecting electrical energy era — and it may have an rising affect sooner or later. Among the dangers, nuclear crops that depend on water for cooling may very well be affected by water shortages, and a few are positioned in coastal areas which are susceptible to sea-level rise or flooding.
In its report, WMO famous that in 2020, some 87 per cent or global electrical energy generated from thermal, nuclear and hydroelectric programs — which produce much less CO2 than crops run by fossil fuels — relied on water availability.