Abu Dhabi: Despite global rhetoric about climate change and energy access, not enough financing is being provided to ensure energy access for all, a high-level panel heard in the capital on Tuesday.
To ensure universal energy access by 2030, $40 billion (Dh146.9 billion) must be invested each year, according to the Global Energy Assessment Report issued in 2012. Although this amount represents less than 3 per cent of worldwide yearly investment, the financing is still not available, said Achim Steiner, executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme.
“There is too much rhetoric, too little follow-through, too much bureaucracy and too little response,” Steiner said.
The UNEP official was speaking at a panel which was convened on the first day of the sixth World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi. The summit saw energy experts, world leaders, policymakers and companies discuss trends and challenges in providing sustainable energy for all.
According to Steiner, financing is one of the stumbling blocks in achieving both universal energy access and clean energy solutions.
“Everything now hinges on financing from international organisations, multilateral development banks and bilateral development banks, as well as from public private partnerships,” he said.
Investment in global renewable energy also reduced by 11 per cent this year, Adnan Z Ameen, director general of the International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena), told the panel.
“However, this amount is still four times the money that was being invested four years ago,” he explained.
At the moment, the world is also failing to reduce carbon emissions significantly, and these are “going through the roof”, Steiner said.
“[The increase in carbon emissions] signals trouble in terms of mitigating climate change. Without action, we will not be able to meet in 10 years to discuss the climate as the dramatic nature of the increase in emissions at the moment is incompatible with adding another 1.3 billion to the energy economy,” he added.
The energy-wealthy must change far more rapidly in order to enable the energy-poor to become part of the global energy economy, Steiner said.
Additionally, the UNEP official also urged policymakers to exert far greater efforts in increasing energy efficiency.
