Source: Energy & Management Powernews, 21 . October 2022
The world's 20 largest industrialized countries are not doing enough to reduce their greenhouse gases, according to recent findings. The energy crisis could set them back further.
Worldwide, emissions of climate gases continue to rise, according to the annual report by the environmental organization Climate Transparency. Due to the Corona pandemic, emissions had declined by 4.9% in 2020, but increased again by 6.1% in 2021. In the long term, however, the growth in emissions has slowed. While global CO2 emissions rose by more than 2% per year from 2000 to 2009, they were less than 2% per year in the decade thereafter.
The emissions of the G-20, which emit three-quarters of the world's greenhouse gases (with 67% of the world's population and 85% of global economic output), also follow these trends. Their emissions are rising much more slowly than their economic output, but still too fast to meet the climate targets of the Paris Agreement, according to Climate Transparency.
Although most countries (except Brazil, India, Indonesia, Mexico and Russia) have improved their climate targets - so-called Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) - in recent years, "overall, neither the climate targets nor the measures taken to implement them are sufficient to reach the 1.5 degree target." Climate activists see reason for more confidence in the EU, China and the U.S., which have substantially increased their NDC's. Overall, the measures envisaged by 2030 would lead to a warming of the atmosphere by 2.4 degrees.
The only country with a "nearly sufficient" climate policy is the UK, according to Climate Transparency's assessment. The states of the EU, the USA, Japan and Australia were "not doing enough" to reduce their emissions of climate gases, the major emerging economies were doing "far too little", and the climate policies of Russia and Turkey were "completely inadequate."
Differing liabilities of the targets
Positive, it said, was that all governments of the G-20, with the exception of Mexico, had now resolved to stop emitting greenhouse gases in the foreseeable future. Most countries have set their sights on 2050, with Germany aiming to become emissions-free as early as 2045, but China not until 2060. However, the binding nature of these targets varies widely, he said, even though more and more countries are moving to set the phase-out date in law
Most G-20 countries not only wanted to achieve climate neutrality domestically, but were also calculating the crediting of reductions outside their borders. In doing so, there is a risk of double counting, he said. In addition, there is a reliance on technologies that - such as carbon capture and storage (CCS) - are not technically mature and often not economically viable.
The emissions-free future is only credible if the G-20 at least halves its emissions by 2030. To do so, they would have to set much more ambitious climate targets for the coming years and significantly increase their investment plans for climate protection.
Energy generation accounted for around three-quarters of greenhouse gases in the G-20 countries in 2019, 40% of which came from the electricity sector, followed by industry (23%) and transport (19%). Power generation from renewables therefore plays a key role in decoupling emissions from economic growth, he said. The competitiveness of renewables improved dramatically between 2010 and 2021, he said. The cost of solar power fell by 88% during this period, wind power by 68%, offshore wind by 60%.
Despite this, the group of nations still subsidized the use of fossil energy to the tune of $124 billion (126 billion euros) in 2019 to 2020. The highest amounts provided Japan (nearly 13.3 billion euros), followed by South Korea (10.2 billion euros) and China (8.2 billion euros). Since then, all of the G-20 have pledged to stop allocating public funds to international fossil fuel projects.
Historically high subsidy levels for fossil fuels
The report criticized, however, that there were crisis-related exemptions for natural gas that could create long-term dependencies. It said this was especially true for investments in fossil infrastructure with a long lifetime, which put a strain on the energy transition. In the same period(2019-20), "clean energy projects" were supported with 19.9 billion euros. Nuclear, hydropower and infrastructure development received 18.1 billion euros in subsidies.
As part of measures to address the energy crisis, EU countries in particular, but also the US, wanted to accelerate the expansion of renewables. However, he said, this was offset by an increase in subsidies for the consumption of fossil fuels. Last year, the G-20 spent around 194 billion euros on this. "This historically high level of subsidies will continue to rise this year if energy prices are capped." He said the attempt to protect consumers and the economy from the consequences of rising energy prices continues to support fossil energy and hinders investment in improving energy efficiency and switching to low-emission alternatives.
Author: Tom Weingärtner
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