The CEOs, who are all members of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development’s Electricity Utilities Sector Project, have taken part in a technology-by-technology analysis to determine what policies will be needed at national and international levels to deploy the technologies on the required scale. Balancing energy security, providing affordable electricity and mitigating climate change will require global cooperation.
In the coming decades the world will need double today’s power generation,” says the report. “We in the power sector have a strong opportunity to take a lead in combating climate change. But we cannot do this alone. We need to work with governments and other stakeholders to find solutions. We realise some of these changes will take many years, but there is no time to lose and it is only through combined efforts that we will succeed in creating a low-carbon, sustainable energy future.”
The report, “Power to Change: A business contribution to a low-carbon electricity future,” contains a comprehensive comparison of existing and potential technologies with a very specific outline of policies and measures to drive large-scale technological development and deployment worldwide.
The investment needed for capital replacement and additional infrastructure development has been estimated at $11.6 trillion by 2030.The report highlights that this presents a significant opportunity to direct investments towards low-carbon technologies.
About 41 per cent of global energy-related carbon dioxide emissions come from the electricity sector,” said Matthew Bateson, the Council’s managing director of Energy and Climate. “It will be a challenge to cut those emissions while maintaining economic development and sustaining the social benefits provided by electricity, but, given the need for new investment in the industry, it could also be an opportunity.”
“The sector operates on long-term investments, so decisions made today will persist for the next 40 years or so, if not longer. So it is essential that the right decisions are taken today.”
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