Countries should step up support for clean power, despite the challenges posed by the Covid-19 outbreak, said UK Secretary for Business and Energy and President of the COP26 climate conference Alok Sharma during an online session of the Petersberg Climate Dialogue.
Speaking at the High Level Stakeholder Session of the event, a two-day conference bringing together around 30 climate ministers from around the world, he also called for an end to the building of new coal plants around the world.
He called for the scaling up of technical assistance and policy support to make clean power the most attractive option for all countries, and to assist coal-dependent countries in a “just transition”.
The online video conference, to be held on Monday and Tuesday this week, is hosted by Sharma together with Svenja Schulze, Germany’s Federal Environment Minister and is focusing on how the international community can emerge from the acute coronavirus pandemic more resilient and more climate-friendly.
Sharma said that during the fight against the coronavirus it is important not to lose sight of the “huge challenges” of climate change, highlighting the energy transition and decarbonising transport.
He said these were two of the campaigns the UK would be focusing on in the lead up to the COP26 conference, which was due to be held in Glasgow this November but which has been delayed until next year.
“The challenge we face is how do we speed up progress towards a zero emission and climate-resilient global economy, whilst at the same time creating jobs and supporting communities through the transition?” he said.
“To meet the goals of the Paris Agreement, we need to decarbonise the global economy about three to five times faster over the next decade than we did over the last two decades.”
The UK minister highlighted the 85% cost reduction in solar power costs and 49% reduction in wind costs as “impressive” progress.
He said: “Renewables are already cheaper than new coal power in two thirds of all countries in the world. And before long, it will be cheaper to build new renewables than to continue to operate existing coal plants.
“Cheap and clean electricity is very much a reality. But the transition away from polluting coal power is not complete.”
Collaboration between countries, businesses, as well as international organisations and civil society were crucial to progress, he said.
But he added: “We also need to scale up technical assistance, investment, and indeed, policy support, so that clean power becomes the most attractive option for all countries, not just developed ones.
“The global pipeline of planned new coal plants, which is already shrinking, we should aim to have that eliminated entirely.”
He called for support to heavily coal-dependent countries for making a “just transition”, adding that “we need to help them to move to clean energy in a way that creates jobs and supports the communities that are most affected.”
“And we absolutely have to work together to extend access to electricity to almost the almost billion people – around 840 million people – around the world who don’t actually have access to it right now.”
Sharma also spoke about the importance of decarbonising transport and the UK’s investment in a Battery Industrialisation Centre, “a stepping stone to our larger commitment for a Gigafactory – a large-scale battery technology factory for electric vehicles”.
“Cheap and clean power, and the scaling up of batteries and fuel cells in road transport, will absolutely open new pathways to decarbonisation in industry, buildings, aviation and shipping.”