UN says 2023 presents chance for decisive action on energy transition

Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Simon Stiell has said that the year 2023 offers a chance for concrete action on the energy transition.

Speaking on Tuesday at the Oslo energy forum, Stiell asserted that there is a chance to make the energy transition a key turning point for climate action before COP28.

“For years, the world was told that issues on any energy transition were too difficult to overcome, the costs were too great, attitudes too ingrained, political positions too deadlocked,” he said. “Yet precisely, the opposite has occurred. We’ve witnessed global momentum for the global energy transition. The proof is clear in outcomes from the formal climate change process and on-the-ground action,”.

He noted that the decisions adopted by all Parties in Sharm El-Sheikh stressed the urgent need for clean and ‘just’ energy transition through low-emission and renewable energy, adding that they further stressed that geopolitics should not be used as a pretext for backtracking, backsliding or de-prioritising climate action.

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“In the meantime — outside the formal process — the last five years have seen the acceptance, transformation and exponential growth of renewables surpassing almost every projection,” he said.

He maintained that the possibility of just energy transition was available for all countries and that the months leading to COP28 are effective to move from discussion to solutions that will significantly reduce climate crises.

“Opportunities related to the clean energy transition are there for all countries, all businesses, as are opportunities to make this a just transition for all workers,” Stiell said. “It’s time to move from discussions about balance to solutions — solutions that get us from where we are now to where science tells us we need to be by 2030 if we’re to ultimately limit long-term climate chaos,”.

The UNFCCC executive secretary said that to truly transform the energy sector, the conference of parties (COP) and the global stocktake (GST) need to make decisions that will accelerate the transition.

This story was adapted from The Cable.