BAKU, Azerbaijan, Jan.17. The ratio of investments in fossil fuels and clean energy should be $1 to $9, Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), said during the discussions on Mastering New Energy Economics at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Trend reports.
“Today the world invests one dollar for fossil fuels and 1.5 dollars for clean energy. If we want to reach 1.5-degree target to keep our climate safe, this ratio 1 to 1.5 should be 1 to 9. So, there should be big increase in clean energy investment,” he said.
Birol pointed out that the cost of capital for clean energy technologies is about 6 or 7 times higher in developing countries than US or Europe.
“This is the nerve center of all the problems. Advanced economies have two reasons to support the clean energy financing in developing countries. The first, 1 ton of CO2 going to atmosphere from Detroit or from Jakarta, New York has the same affect on everybody. You can do whatever you want at home, it doesn’t change if the emissions come from elsewhere. You can bring the UK emissions to zero, but you will not be able to protect yourself from climate change impacts if Indonesia or other countries don’t. The second driver why they should invest in clean energy transition in developing countries is the moral reason. About 80 percent of carbon in the atmosphere was emitted by advanced economies,” he added.
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