Electricity companies from around the world have voiced strong commitment to the reduction of carbon emissions and the use of advanced technologies to reach climate change goals.
In a joint statement, utility executives representing electricity associations from Europe, North America, Japan and Australia, say that the use of new technologies can lead to a stabilization of carbon emissions, and have agreed to set up an International Electricity Partnership to foster their development and deployment.
However, they warn that commitment is required from governments and must be coupled with a supportive public policy framework if climate change goals are to be reached. They have also voiced concerns that the current turmoil in capital markets could damage technology development.
“As one of the most capital intensive industries, electric utilities must have ready access to liquid capital markets,” reads the statement, agreed at a recent summit held in the USA. “Global competitive financial markets are essential to the industry’s objective to invest and provide secure and reliable electricity to customers and to install the new technologies required to curb climate change.”
The industry leaders – representing Eurelectric, the Edison Electric Institute, Japan’s Federation of Electric Power Companies, the Canadian Electricity Association and the Energy Supply Association of Australia – believe that electricity can be the solution to climate change. They agree that new technology could not only stabilise emissions, but also result in carbon emission reductions of 60-80 per cent by 2050.
The International Electricity Partnership will work with various organizations to create a roadmap for the development and deployment of commercial technologies, expand renewable energy and realise improvements in grid systems.
The executives also note the importance of nuclear power as a key part of the solution to energy security and climate change.
“This is a big step forward. In the last three or four years the industry has made remarkable progress in their view of their own role in climate issues,” said Lars G Josefsson, CEO of Vattenfall and current President of Eurelectric.
“This agreement means that the entire world of OECD will be working together towards developing new technology to reduce emissions. We also discussed how this technology could be disseminated, and there was great support for sharing it with the big developing countries.”
Representatives from China and India were not present at the recent summit, but their possible contribution was discussed, according to Vattenfall.