(Oil & Gas 360) – With slightly less than a month left before his annual global night of magic, Santa received a lengthy Christmas list after this year’s COP 29 climate action conference in Azerbaijan.
The group and the International Energy Agency (IEA) have cited five key areas. They look to triple renewable energy capacity while doubling energy efficiency. Another major initiative is to expand and improve grid infrastructure and energy storage solutions (i.e., batteries). A fourth initiative, scaling clean energy investments, targets the developing countries, primarily those in Latin America, middle Asia, and Africa. Finally, there is an emphasis on accelerating green hydrogen development for areas and sectors that are hard to electrify.
In addition to hydrogen, the group wants to emphasize improvements in hydropower engineering, and there is a focus on developing more green fuels for both the airline and maritime sectors, targeting emissions from global tourism and trade. There are recommendations for establishing green energy transportation corridors to reduce emissions from ground transportation.
In addition to reducing carbon emissions, COP 29 also targeted methane, primarily from food production, via a new half-billion-dollar grant mechanism.
In building, a new global cement and concrete association is looking to align efficiency and technologies for green materials, full-cycle building from delivery to eventual waste, and using more efficient heat pumps and green materials for indoor climate and cooking.
Agriculture, ocean health, and clean water systems are standing to gain from better protection of coastline biodiversity through international collaboration, working towards standardizing sustainable tourism, and an equitable and just energy transition for the poorer countries.
As for some country-specific outcomes, the United Kingdom looks to cut emissions by eighty percent in the next ten years while pledging no new coal mines. Brazil has upped its emissions reduction goal to nearly seventy percent for the same period.
Indonesia has pledged to build seventy-five gigawatts of renewables by 2040 and officials at COP 29 say the United States is looking to spend as much in climate funding it can from the Inflation Reduction Act before a new administration.
China has put the world’s second-largest solar plant online in just fourteen months and is now also boasting the world’s largest offshore open sea solar project.
Here is a review of the takeaways from the proceedings, which includes an appeal for world peace. Santa has his hands full.
Summary_Global_Climate_Action_at_COP_29.pdf
By Jim Felton oilandgas360.com contributor
“The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Oil & Gas 360.
