7 challenges to achieving sustainable energy
The seven areas for policy advances that Kyte highlighted as priorities if we are to achieve the international community’s goals for 2030 are as follows:
- First,
we have made progress in identifying the one billion people without access to
electricity, but we need to develop business models to deliver
electricity to them,
including by identifying the “missing middle” level for finance.
- Second,
progress
in increasing energy productivity should be a priority, and
requires a total government approach with support from the highest levels. On
this issue, she said efforts to enhance industrial-use efficiency, use
efficiency of new buildings, retrofiting existing buildings, and increased
appliance efficiency should be addressed.
- Third,
on carbon capture, storage and/or use, she said policy around carbon use is
the most exciting area for attention.
- Fourth,
the coal mining vocation encompasses cultural advantages, and policy
attention to coal should
be focused on identifying transition policies that will address the needs of
coal mining communities.
- Fifth,
on finance, she highlighted the need for infrastructure finance and
said one challenge is for development banks to be more risk tolerant. She
rejected the idea that underperforming pension funds could be unlocked to
provide such funding, and highlighted a recent SEforALL publication titled, ‘Energizing
Finance,’
which finds that only half of the needed finance to achieve SDG 7 is flowing.
- Sixth,
Kyte said
mindsets,
institutions and transparency should be addressed. She noted that country planning for
achieving the SDGs and the nationally determined contributions (NDCs) under the
Paris Agreement on climate change are better than the previous generation of
national plans, and highlighted that countries have been able to learn from
their neighbors. She
stressed the need for policy coherence, including through the reduction of
subsidies, to allow developing countries to make progress. She also emphasized
that investors, shareholders and regulators need to be on the same page.
- Seventh,
Kyte
stressed the importance of pursuing policies that embrace the
principles of universality and inclusivity, and noted the need to consider how
services could be bundled for the poor and to ensure that services reach women.
- In conclusion, Kyte said
“time
is our enemy,”
and we have no time to lose.