KERRY: DO NOT LET UKRAINE WAR DERAIL CLIMATE FIGHT
▶ Energy crisis worsened by conflict is not an excuse to expand fossil fuel use, says US official
US climate envoy John Kerry yesterday issued a warning against building new fossil fuel infrastructure in response to the energy crisis exacerbated by the war in Ukraine.
He told the World Economic Forum that it was possible to meet energy shortages in Europe without sacrificing efforts to stem climate change.
“We should not allow a false narrative to be created that what has happened in Ukraine somehow obviates the need to continue forward and to accelerate even what we are trying to do to address the crisis of the climate,” Mr Kerry said in the Swiss town of Davos.
“No one should believe that the crisis of Ukraine is an excuse to suddenly build out the old kind of infrastructure that we had.”
The US diplomat reserved praise for the UAE’s action on climate change, naming solar and green hydrogen projects in the Emirates and investment in other nations.
Mr Kerry’s comments came with months to go before Egypt hosts the Cop27 climate change summit in November.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry sought to set a tone of co-operation before the meeting, saying protesters would be allowed to demonstrate outside the venue.
He said Egypt was working hard to fulfil the commitments towards renewable energy and reducing emissions it made at Cop26 in Glasgow, Scotland, last year.
China is also seeking to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels.
At Davos yesterday, Zhigang Zhang, president of the State Grid Corporation of China, said there were projects under way to install 100 gigawatts a year of new energy capacity.
These are focusing on wind and hydrogen over coal and fuel, and using desert areas to develop clean energy.
Important Chinese manufacturing sectors are pushing towards net-zero emissions, too.
“We see the steel industry in China decarbonising by 2040,” Elizabeth Gaines, chief executive of Fortescue Metals Group, told a panel event at the WEF, even though the overall target date for the country to reach net zero is 2060.
Middle East countries “can play, and some of them are playing, a critical role at this point” in the effort to mitigate global warming and accelerate the path to net-zero carbon emissions, the US envoy for climate change has said in Davos.
Countries in the region are engaged in the effort to develop renewable energy capacity around the world, John Kerry, special presidential envoy for climate, said yesterday.
“The UAE, for instance, has a very large solar deployment. They are exploring rapidly green hydrogen and they are investing in other countries and helping with their transitions,” Mr Kerry said.
“India is a prime example, where you have a [2030 renewable energy] commitment by Prime Minister [Narendra] Modi, which is 500 gigawatts, which is very significant.”
The Regional Dialogue for Climate Action was held in Abu Dhabi in April last year, and was critical for building momentum before the Cop26 climate change in Glasgow, Scotland. Cop27 will be held in Egypt this year and the UAE will host Cop28 in 2023.
“The UAE stepped up and hosted the first-ever Middle East climate conference, which had 11 countries come together, a group of them oil and gas producers. And they all signed on to an extremely forward-leaning communique, which they are now pursuing,” Mr Kerry said.
“So, I think that any oil-producing country that begins to step up and indicate their acceptance of the reality of the need to build up for a transition is a critical message to the rest of the world. And the UAE and other countries in the region have done that, and are doing that.”
The UAE, Jordan and Israel signed an agreement in November to develop a renewable energy and desalination plant in Jordan.
“So, we just announced the project ‘Prosperity’, which is a combination of Jordan, the UAE and Israel building solar power output that will feed into Israel, while Israel is going to help produce a major desalinisation plant capacity for Jordan,” Mr Kerry said.
“And there is a synergy in that, not to mention that it helps build a foundation for countries to begin to think about each other and work with each other very differently from past history.”
The flaring of natural gas remains a problem in the region and releases methane, a significant contributor to global warming, he said.
“Ending flaring, in Iraq, for instance, other countries, flare still and vent. That is a real challenge because methane is so much more destructive than [carbon dioxide]. We must stop those practices. And, obviously, plug the leaks of methane that are occurring into many parts of the world. Russia has a particularly heavy leakage challenge,” Mr Kerry said.
However, in the short term, oil producers in the Middle East could help alleviate the impact of the energy crisis being felt worldwide, he said.
“Obviously, it would help to have some greater [oil and gas] production at this point in time in order to deal with some of the challenges of inflation and rise of price, particularly on gas for a lot of citizens around the world,” Mr Kerry said.
International Energy Agency executive director Fatih Birol said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had led to “a major energy crisis”.
“This is the first global energy crisis. We had the oil price crises of the 1970s. But now, we have major problems in terms of oil, in terms of natural gas, in terms of coal,” Mr Birol said at the conference yesterday.
“Russia was only a few weeks ago the number one oil exporter of the world, the number one natural gas exporter of the world and the major player in the coal markets.”
Turmoil in markets, high prices and inflation are all giving “signals of recession” around the world. Some countries have responded to meet the fall in supply “understandably”, he said.
Mr Birol said these temporary measures risk going beyond what is currently needed and could undermine efforts to control global warming.
Mr Kerry also said that the issue of energy supplies lost in Europe because of the Ukraine war should not be a distraction from the climate emergency and what is required to meet global goals.
“We should not allow a false narrative to be created, that what has happened in Ukraine, somehow, obviates the need to continue forward, and to accelerate even what we are trying to do to address the crisis of climate,” he said.
Mr Kerry said that carbon dioxide emissions had gone up by 6 per cent, while the use of coal had increased by 9 per cent in the past year.
“We can meet the crisis of Ukraine and the energy crisis of Europe, and still deal, as we must, with the climate crisis,” he said.
We can meet the crisis of Ukraine and the energy crisis of Europe, and still deal, as we must, with the climate crisis
JOHN KERRY
US climate change envoy