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The energy to combat climate change
No-one disputes the pressing need for world leaders to agree a climate deal in Copenhagen in December. However, unless there are radical changes in the ways we source and distribute energy around the world, climate change initatives will unquestionably founder.

The myriad interconnections between climate change and energy were formally recognized in 2005 with the founding at IIASA of the Global Energy Assessment (GEA), which is due to report in fall 2010—less than a year after the leaders of global governments and civil society meet to work out a global climate deal in Copenhagen. The GEA is perhaps the most ambitious multidisciplinary energy assessment ever undertaken, with leading world energy experts and institutions having committed to a five-year research effort to rethink approaches to energy from scratch and advise policymakers accordingly.

Climate change and energy are “joined at the hip.” Since the industrial revolution, when fossil fuels started being burned on an accelerating scale to power manufacturing and growth, the energy supply has acted as an arbiter of development, splitting the world into the haves and the have-nots. Energy’s effects on climate change, however, have been far from arbitrary; greenhouse gases and pollution from energy generation are producing impacts at the global scale. The inequitable global distribution of energy has resulted in energy poverty in many regions—including over-reliance on traditional biomass for cooking in the developing world, which only serves to exacerbate pollution and climate warming.

Thus, as global leaders sit down to discuss climate change in December, it is worth remembering that although “climate change” is the centerpiece of the global agenda at Copenhagen, addressing energy and related global problems is also a vital part of slowing global warming. A clean, sustainable, equitable energy supply can only heighten the prospects for achieving future climate targets. Indeed, unless major policy reforms and technologies are introduced to transform the ways we produce and consume energy, global-energy-related carbon dioxide emissions will increase by some 50 percent between 2004 and 2030.

It might be obvious from a present-day standpoint that studying different global problems from a single compartmentalized perspective is no longer feasible. However, four years ago when the GEA was founded, the initiative was unique in assessing energy’s impact on many social, economic, and sectoral issues, and vice versa. It would take an occurrence of the magnitude and with the massive fall-out of the global economic and financial crisis of late 2008 to shock the complacent majority into comprehending that the era of individual, corporate, and national self-interest was effectively over and that a holistic approach to sustaining life on the planet was needed.

Although inside-the-box and short-term thinking in some quarters still need to be addressed, GEA work recognizes that integration and cooperation are, in fact, the new “modus survivendi.” Its integrative approach links climate change with sustainable economic growth, with expanded access to modern energy services for poor and rural populations, with alleviation of local, regional, and global environmental impacts, with securing energy/fuel supply and investment. “With” is the operative word, with cooperation being the driving force behind this venture.

To make this ”with list” happen, GEA is actively contributing to the work of important energy initiatives worldwide. As well as working with large academic institutions and leading energy researchers, it has also formalized partnerships with national and international organizations, which have been mutually enriching in terms of multi-directional insights and knowledge.

Ultimately, however, it is the national politicians who will need to be convinced to sign on the dotted line at Copenhagen, and this will not happen unless a climate change agreement is in everyone’s best interests. Backed by a far-sighted, inclusive, politically sensitive global energy strategy, it will be.

Take energy security, for example. A modern state critically depends upon the uninterrupted flow of energy to transport, the residential sector, vital industry, infrastructure, and other key components of a national economy. In many countries, concerns over adequate, reliable, and affordable energy supplies feature prominently on the national security agenda. At the same time, energy system vulnerability is increasing—more so in poorer countries—with rising demand, geographic concentration of key resources such as oil, and energy systems increasingly operating near their critical loads because of underinvestment and poor maintenance. Some governments and private actors may seek to secure control over energy resources and systems by political and even military means which entangles energy with a broader security agenda ranging from defense spending to stability of governance. GEA is actively engaged with the Global Environment Facility, a major funder of projects to improve the global environment, in preparing energy policy tools that can be easily accessed and used by policymakers throughout the developing world. It is hoped that this advice and support in the form of capacity building on energy issues, such as those mentioned above, will make a future international climate change treaty more realistically achievable.

The participation and backing of international institutional efforts have lent integrity and authority to GEA’s work. It is an active key member of UN Energy, established to enhance effective and coordinated action on energy by the United Nations, and encompassing 20 UN agencies plus the World Bank. The main focus of its work is renewable energy, energy efficiency and energy access—three key GEA areas.

GEA, through its Director Nebojsa Nakicenovic and his team, also makes a major contribution to the Advisory Group to the Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Energy and Climate Change. It provides analysis and advice on assessing the most realistic options for avoiding dangerous climate change and the best way of facilitating science-based decision making—both of which will be key to the successful implementation of a new global deal on climate change.

Further information

The Global Energy Assessment

Luis Gomez-Echeverri is Associate Director and Martin Offutt is Senior Program Officer of the Global Energy Assessment.

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Last updated: 08 Jul 2010