Leaders of some of Europe’s largest renewables developers have urged governments to accelerate the global economy away from polluting activities, following yesterday’s publication of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC’s) latest report.
Enel chief executive Francesco Starace (pictured) said the world’s governments must go “all in” by “rapidly shifting” the global economy away from polluting activities, and to scale up climate solutions.
“This is essential if we are to get all of our suppliers and customers on track with us,” he said.
Orsted CEO Mads Nipper said the latest IPCC report “reinforces the fact that global economies must take bold measures to rapidly reduce emissions and limit the global temperature rise to 1.5 °C.”
He pointed out that production and consumption of energy are responsible for 73% of global greenhouse gas emissions, making it “crucial to immediately accelerate” the energy transition to combat climate change.
“Long-term targets are nothing without immediate action. Or as Elvis Presley used to sing it: ‘A little less conversation, a little more action, please'” Nipper stated.
The Orsted chief executive joined Starace in urging the world’s governments to “accelerate a shift away from polluting activities” and to scale up wind and solar power, which are now the “cheapest source of power in more than two thirds of the world”.
ScottishPower CEO Keith Anderson said the report makes for stark reading.
“We already knew that bold steps were needed to address the climate crisis, but this report – the biggest ever scientific study – is clear that human behaviour is driving unprecedented changes to our planet’s atmosphere,” he said, adding there is now “very little time” to meet the goals set out in the Paris Agreement.
“Our governments and political leaders can no longer hide from this reality.”
Anderson said the UK “needs to make big changes and needs to make them faster”, referring to supportive switching to EVs and wide-scale replacement of domestic gas and oil boiler heating systems.
“We already know 14% of the UK’s carbon emissions currently come from domestic housing and that needs to be urgently addressed,” he added.
SSE Renewables director of capital projects Paul Cooley said: “The IPCC report is an alarming publication and should act as a wake-up call to world leaders preparing to meet at COP26 that strong action is needed to avert climate disaster. The worst can be avoided if the world acts fast.
“For the renewables sector, this demands urgent action is taken to deliver new offshore wind to help prevent the worst impacts of the climate emergency.
“That’s why delivering on Scotland’s 10GW of new offshore wind energy under the ScotWind process is absolutely critical to Scotland and the UK’s ambitions, and why successful bids must take the steps necessary to accelerate delivery so that ScotWind projects can be rapidly developed.”
The Working Group I report, ‘Climate Change 2021: the Physical Science Basis’ is the first instalment of the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report (AR6), warned that without immediate, rapid and large-scale reductions in GHG emissions, limiting warming to close to 1.5°C or even 2°C will be beyond reach.