World’s richest nations should honour $100bn climate financing pledge
The world’s wealthiest nations should deliver on their pledge to provide $100bn per year of climate financing to cut energy bills and boost renewable projects across developing countries, argued technology firm Wärtsilä.
It has urged so-called Annex I countries – 40 high-emitting countries across the West – to honour its pledges to fund climate change mitigation measures.
This includes reducing greenhouse emissions in developing countries, and adaptation to climate change.
The OCED has tracked the group climate commitments, revealing that they have not reached the $100bn dollar level yet – with financing instead reaching just $83.3bn in 2020.
In its group’s latest research, Wärtsilä calculated that a boost in renewables could provide reliable energy to 100m people across South Africa, Mozambique and Nigeria without power, if it were matched with necessary grid infrastructure.
Its report ‘Pathways for Africa’s Energy Future’ suggests that renewable energy, if deployed effectively, could also cut energy costs by up to 74 per cent in Nigeria and help South Africa solve its load-shedding dilemma and save $26bn by 2032.
Meanwhile, it forecasts that Mozambique could vastly increase access to electricity, currently at 35 per cent of the population.
However, Wärtsilä argues that boosting access to renewable energy will require significant capital injections from developed economies – of up to $119bn for those three countries alone.
It believes that the upcoming COP27 summit in Cairo, Egypt, offers a unique opportunity to increase energy access and lay the foundations for decarbonisation across Africa.
Håkan Agnevall, president and chief executive of Wärtsilä said: “Despite contributing less than three per cent of the world’s energy‐related carbon emissions, African countries are among the hardest hit by climate change.
“The low-hanging fruit of global decarbonisation lies in replacing costly, polluting legacy fossil fuel power plants, with low-cost renewable energy technologies, such as wind and solar, coupled with flexible balancing power.”