Climate Action 2014-2015

MITIGATION AND ADAPTATION
Credit: Photo Hydro-Québec
climate agreement: there can be no
effective international climate framework
in the absence of strong and balanced
national energy policy frameworks.
Well-functioning and balanced national
energy policy frameworks are the only
viable enforcement mechanism for an
effective international climate agreement.
The WEC is working hard to promote
such sustainable energy that will
eventually underpin a global climate
accord. WEC views the world in terms
of the Energy ‘Trilemma’, the tradeoff
between energy security, energy
access and environmental mitigation.
Creating the right balance between
these three imperatives is the secret to
the establishment of a sustainable energy
future. In October, in preparation for
COP20, WEC and the Colombian
Presidency convened a high-level
summit attended by over 20 ministers
and other senior government officials
from Latin America and across the world
to discuss energy resilience. It was clear
from that meeting that energy leaders in
Latin America are giving climate change
issues the importance that they deserve
despite wider concerns about economic
growth, job creation, energy security
and energy equity. However, despite
growing awareness of climate issues, it
is apparent that the region also needs to
give a greater focus on the third pillar
of the Energy Trilemma: environmental
mitigation. COP20 could provide the
impetus that the region needs.
ENVIRONMENT STRESS
FROM GROWING ENERGY
DEMAND
We cannot escape the fact that growing
demand for energy from a rising and
increasingly prosperous population will
lead to an increase in GHG emissions.
Global energy demand is set to increase
by 1.5 per cent per year through to
2035 and this alone will require massive
undertaking in terms of the required
investments. This in itself makes the case
for a global framework agreement.
To meet the projected growth in
demand, an estimated cumulative
investment of US$40.2 trillion is
required across the energy infrastructure
supply chain over the period 2014-2035
with an additional $8 trillion investment
needed in energy efficiency measures
and more energy efficient technologies.
These investment requirements rise by
over 5 per cent to US$53 trillion in
cumulative investment by 2035 if the
target is set to a 2˚C emissions path as the
speed at which the decarbonisation of the
energy sector takes place would need to be
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