Fuel crisis threatening to derail climate work

The global energy crisis threatens to throw the transition to renewable power even further off track, the International Renewable Energy Agency has warned in a new report that calls for "radical action" from governments on emissions.

The agency, which is also called IRENA, said massive investment in renewable sources of energy is needed to keep Paris Agreement targets within reach, which include a limit to global warming of 1.5 C this century and a move toward net-zero emissions by the middle of the century.

In the World Energy Transitions Outlook 2022 report released this week, IRENA said renewables need to be scaled up, from 14 percent of total energy today to around 40 percent by 2030, to keep climate targets in reach.

This transition will require $5.7 trillion in annual investment, the agency said, including $700 billion annually redirected away from fossil fuels to avoid stranded assets.

But the agency is concerned that a trend of rising gas and oil prices, made more severe by the crisis in Ukraine, will serve to undermine the transition to renewables because some nations are moving to increase domestic fossil fuel exploration and production.

In the United States, oil and gas stakeholders, including the American Petroleum Institute, have lobbied Washington, urging lawmakers to loosen regulations on domestic fossil fuels in the name of energy security. In the United Kingdom, the government appears set on increasing oil and gas extraction from beneath the North Sea.

IRENA said "short-term interventions addressing the current energy crisis" must be accompanied by a "steadfast focus on mid- and long-term goals" of energy transition.

"The energy transition is far from being on track and anything short of radical action in the coming years will diminish, even eliminate chances to meet our climate goals," said Francesco La Camera, director-general of IRENA.

La Camera acknowledged governments are facing multiple challenges, including realizing energy security, economic recovery, and the affordability of energy bills.

But he said the long-term solution to the problems lies in an accelerated transition to renewables, which will support jobs and reduce dependency on imported fossil fuels.

"Investing in new fossil-fuel infrastructure will only lock-in uneconomic practices, perpetuate existing risks, and increase the threats of climate change," he said.

The UK is expected to greenlight six new oil and gas projects in the North Sea this year.

"Europe's reliance on Russia's gas supply has been an Achilles heel," Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng wrote in the Mail on Sunday newspaper. "For the sake of our security, we need to become more energy self-sufficient … We also need to back North Sea oil and gas while we transition to cheap, clean power."

The climate campaign group Uplift UK said that while these new North Sea projects will move the UK further from its goal of net-neutrality by 2050, they will do little to satisfy domestic demand or drive down energy bills.

Uplift said half of the sites will produce oil that will mainly be exported, and gas claimed by the UK will only satisfy 2 percent of the nation's total demand, by 2026 at the earliest.