China News Agency, Berlin, October 31 (Reporter Peng Dawei) The United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) is about to open in Glasgow, UK.
How to promote countries around the world to accelerate the transition to clean energy and achieve the goal of net zero emissions will be one of the key topics of this conference.
On the eve of the opening of COP26, the picture of the shortage of domestic energy supply in the UK and long queues of cars at gas stations attracted the attention of the media from all over the world, and also cast a shadow on the theme of the climate conference.
Schultz, the winner of the German general election, also expressed his concern about the supply chain crisis caused by the shortage of truck drivers after Brexit in the UK at the post-election press conference.
Many countries in the European continent are also facing the problem of high energy prices.
Reuters reported on the 30th that as oil and natural gas prices soared, energy-consuming countries are worried about energy shortages and inflation.
"An expensive winter is coming." A recent research report by global trade credit insurance giant Euler Hermes pointed out that energy prices have recently reached historical highs, and this situation is expected to last for 3 to 6 months. .
“Brexit is not the cause of the UK’s current energy crisis, but it has exacerbated it.” The author of the report and Ano Kuhanathan, an industry consultant for Yuli Andy, analyzed in an interview with a reporter from China News Agency. The government has invested soldiers in energy transportation and plans to launch an emergency short-term visa program for truck drivers. The situation is improving in the past few weeks, but the energy supply tension will continue at least until the end of this year.
The recent surge in the number of confirmed cases of the new crown in the UK has also raised concerns.
Ano Kuanatan believes that the two factors, the energy crisis and the epidemic, represent both opportunities and challenges for the COP26 process.
He said that during the epidemic, the public's awareness of environmental protection in many countries around the world has been enhanced, but the current energy supply crisis has also made people realize that the energy transition may mean high costs.
Antony Froggatt, deputy director and senior researcher of the Department of Environment and Society of the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House), believes that the tension in energy supply will become a driving force for the acceleration of the transition to clean energy in the UK and around the world. Opportunity.
"When consumers need to pay higher fees for energy, they will have a stronger economic incentive to take measures that can improve energy efficiency and energy conservation. This will also further reduce the relative cost of low-carbon energy."
"In the short term, it is not surprising that some coal power plants that have been reduced in use or out of service are operating at high load again. The question is what will happen in the medium to long term and whether there will be more investment for improvement. Energy efficiency and various technologies that help reduce the demand for fossil energy." He said.
In order to achieve the temperature control goals of the Paris Agreement, countries around the world are still facing severe pressure to reduce emissions.
The latest "2021 Emission Gap Report" released by the United Nations Environment Programme pointed out that compared with the previous round of commitments, the updated Nationally Determined Contribution Targets (NDCs) and other announced climate change mitigation commitments are only in the original forecast. In 2030, the annual greenhouse gas emissions will be reduced by 7.5%.
However, the agency pointed out that in order to maintain the lowest cost path of the 2°C temperature control target in the Paris Agreement, a 30% reduction in emissions needs to be achieved; if the 1.5°C target is to be achieved, a 55% reduction in emissions needs to be achieved.
In this context, China's increasingly important role in global climate governance has attracted attention from all parties on the eve of the opening of COP26.
Kerry Brown, Dean of the Institute of Chinese Studies at King’s College London, wrote a few days ago that China’s 14th Five-Year Plan proposes to increase scientific research funding by more than 7% annually, which means that more than US$500 billion is spent on research in different fields each year. , And environmental science will be one of the focuses.
"China has once again invested a large amount of financial resources in a field that can benefit the world, especially when China succeeds in carbon capture technology or other forms of energy that can quickly and safely replace coal. ."
"The proposal of carbon peak and carbon neutrality targets is China’s solemn commitment to the implementation of the Paris Agreement." The decision of the power plant is an important step in achieving the adaptation of investment and financing to climate change targets in the Paris Agreement.
"It means that it has ended overseas coal investment in the public sector. China also emphasized the need to mobilize resources to support the development of renewable energy, which will also encourage multilateral action and guide more countries to join this action." (End)