Monday, November 23, 2015

Global ministers forecast energy diversification



by Myrna Velasco November 22, 2015

The past few years are considerably the upswing of renewables, but the next phase is being assessed by global energy ministers as the ‘era of diversification’ – primarily factoring in the rising role of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in the global energy trade.
Post-Fukushima, nuclear energy is also brought back into the policy discussions as the world braces for low-carbon technologies in meeting each country’s energy needs.
In the Energy Ministers Meeting hosted by the International Energy Agency (IEA) in Paris ahead of the 21st Conference of the Parties (COP 21) on Climate Change, the global energy leaders have discussed the transitory phase that the sector must go through in keeping with the challenge of abating the impact of a warming atmosphere.
US Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, who was this week’s session chair in the IEA-hosted Ministers’ Meeting, has outlined the action plans that the global energy leaders must act on to bring the sector into its new era.
In particular, the energy leaders set emphasis on “diversification of supply and the safe and sustainable development of energy resources, new transit routes, renewable energy, low carbon technologies including nuclear energy,” as long as it is in accordance with national policies and circumstances.
Moniz similarly noted the “role of energy efficiency” in tandem with diversification play in enhancing energy security.”
The global energy leaders have similarly crafted the Ministerial Statement on Energy and Climate Change that they will lodge to the Paris’ COP 21 global climate diplomacy talks in the next two weeks.
The energy ministers have primarily noted their countries’ efforts “to place a price on carbon emissions.”
In the statement, they have fundamentally tackled “the close relationship between energy and climate change, and it highlights the need to promote policies and innovation that can facilitate a global transition to a clean energy economy.”
Fundamentally, they cited five key opportunities that countries “can adopt in the short run to advance the date by which global emissions peak – with special emphasis on energy efficiency, renewable energy, phasing out of inefficient fuel subsidies, phasing out of least-efficient coal-fired generation, and methane emissions reductions.”
Further, the ministers have stressed “the importance of taking regular further steps that build ever-increasing ambition, the importance of good statistics as well as the innovation and deployment of clean energy technologies.”

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