BAKU, Azerbaijan, January 21. Energy transition program should be implemented in synergy with energy security, executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA) Fatih Birol said, addressing the panel discussions on the Geoeconomics of Energy and Materials held as part of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Trend reports.
“There are many uncertainties, but we shouldn't lose ourselves and lose our perspective by looking at all these uncertainties. I want to highlight a couple of certainties. Number one is energy security. The energy security challenges of today, which is about oil and gas, and then energy security challenges of tomorrow, which refer to critical minerals, supply chains, and the others. This is a certainty and it will stay with us,” he said.
Birol noted that climate change is real, it is happening, and “it will be worsened if we don't change our policies.”
“Today, more than half a million women and children die prematurely in Africa because they don't have access to clean cooking. When we look at the markets, the cost of batteries last year decreased by 20 percent. So are some of the other clean energy technologies. Nuclear power, as IEA has predicted three years ago, is making a strong come back. And when we look at the investments, investment for electricity sector is overtaking the investment in oil, gas and coal put together,” said the IEA’s executive director.
As far as the energy security challenges, he noted the importance of diversification.
“Diversification of the energy technologies, the importing, exporting countries, and the routes. Over-dependencies can quickly turn into serious vulnerabilities. In Europe, we have witnessed this two years ago. Diversification is very important. And finally, for me, a successful clean energy transition is the one which makes the energy systems much more secure and resilient and makes the energy prices affordable and at the same time reduces the reliance on other countries which have the reputation of being not a reliable partner.
So, energy transition is not only reducing or aimed to reduce the emissions, but at the same time provides prosperity to people and makes the energy much more secure. This is the definition of the right energy transition for me. And as such, a real energy transition program, in my view, is not a rival of energy security. They can all be together,” he concluded.
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