UN Climate Change News, 22 September 2023 - A new report released today summarizes the first global dialogue under the Sharm el-Sheikh mitigation ambition and implementation work programme, with a focus on "accelerating the just energy transition."
The dialogue, which took place in conjunction with the Bonn Climate Conference in June, brought together Parties and non-Party stakeholders to discuss best practices, challenges and opportunities.
The mitigation work programme was created by Parties to urgently scale up mitigation ambition and implementation in this critical decade, in a manner that complements the global stocktake.
Speaking at the opening of the event, Youba Sokona, Vice-Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), highlighted that total global greenhouse gas emissions in 2019 were approximately 12 per cent higher than in 2010 and 54 per cent higher than in 1990. He underlined the point that limiting warming to 1.5°C requires rapid, deep and immediate emission reductions.
However, Sokona also pointed out that solutions that could help to at least halve emissions by 2030, compared with 2019 levels, can already be implemented and would address health, equity, justice and even economic concerns, while increasing resilience and accelerating the transition to a clean energy future.
Today's report summarizes some of the best practices, challenges and opportunities that were discussed at the first global dialogue.
One of the best practices identified by participants was that planning and detailed mapping of territories to identify appropriate areas for renewable energy projects are important to ensuring the fastest possible deployment of renewable energy. When it comes to power grids, international collaboration and cross-border trade were identified as essential for grid and energy storage, and contribute to managing price volatility and increase the flexibility of a new, more decentralized energy structure based on renewable energy.
One of the challenges identified at the dialogue also centered on renewable energy. For example, while the cost of renewable technologies has fallen sharply, their deployment remains concentrated in the global north and a limited number of developing countries. Participants said barriers faced by developing countries need to be removed to achieve equal deployment globally. Some of the barriers that still exist in many countries include lack of infrastructure such as grid and energy storage capacities, limited access to low-cost finance (concessional and grant finance for developing countries), and lack of policy frameworks to facilitate integration of renewable energy into the energy system.
On the opportunities front, participants noted that renewable energy opens new opportunities for cross-border and regional cooperation to create economies of scale, promote energy trade and develop new industrial clusters, among others. It is therefore important to consider the entire value chain of technologies to recognize where such opportunities may exist. In this regard, South-South and peer-to-peer cooperation is vital to sharing experience and innovation in developing countries.
