World has a ‘small window’ to tackle warming

The world has a “small window” of opportunity to make a major course correction in the race to limit temperature rises, Cop28 President-designate Dr Sultan Al Jaber said yesterday.

The international community must work together immediately to ensure the energy transition is swift and leaves no countries behind, he said at the Berlin Energy Transition Dialogue Conference.

Under the 2015 Paris Agreement, countries aim to limit global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.

But a report last week by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said greater action was needed to achieve that goal.

“The world is losing the race to keep temperatures from rising 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels,” said Dr Al Jaber, Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and UAE special envoy for climate change.

“We have a small window of opportunity to make a massive course correction. There is still time but we must act now and we must act together and we must anchor our response with a rapid, well-managed and just energy transition.”

The UAE will host the Cop28 climate change summit from November 30 to December 12 at Expo City Dubai.

Heads of state, business leaders and civil society will consider what has been achieved since the Paris Agreement.

Global investments in energy transition technology must quadruple to $35 trillion by 2030 to stay in line with commitments made under the agreement, a report by the International Renewable Energy Agency found. Investments in renewable energy technology reached a record of $1.3 trillion last year.

But that figure must increase to about $5 trillion annually to meet the 1.5°C target, the Abu Dhabi-based intergovernmental agency said.

Dr Al Jaber said that in delivering the energy transition, developing countries must have

adequate access to renewable energy and cheaper funding.

“We need to ensure no one is left behind,” said Dr Al Jaber, who is also managing director and group chief executive of Adnoc and chairman of renewable energy company Masdar.

“Last year, developing economies received only 20 per cent of clean tech investments.

“These are economies that represent 70 per cent of the world’s population – that is over five billion people – and 800 million of them have no access to energy at all.

“They must have access to the least carbon-intensive options available today, as we all stay focused on building the energy system of tomorrow. And, of course, a critical success factor here is finance.”

Dr Al Jaber called for holistic reforms across the global financial architecture and the transformation of multilateral development banks.

This restructuring is needed to ensure developing economies are not left behind as the world pursues clean energy solutions, he said.

“These institutions were established almost 80 years ago to solve postwar inequity and drive reconstruction,” said Dr Al Jaber. “We need to modernise their mandate and update their operating models to cater for and adapt to the 21st century requirements.

“If we make the right moves today, we can create a low-carbon pathway to a high-growth destination.”

Countries around the world are at different stages in their energy transition process, so “we cannot adopt a one-sizefits-all” approach, he said.

The solution is not just “renewables or hydrogen or nuclear or carbon capture or only using the least carbon-intensive oil and gas – in fact, it is all of the above, plus technologies yet to be invented. And once invented, commercialised, advanced and then deployed,” Dr Al Jaber said.

He called for global renewable energy capacity to be tripled by 2030 – as the world seeks to reduce emissions by 43 per cent in the next seven years.