At the Ministerial on Energy Friday morning, ministers from each delegation shared their country’s progress on climate mitigation through energy projects and their plans for the future. Countries have set targets for renewable energy installations, battery storage, and for electrifying their economy.
United States Secretary of the Department of Energy, Jennifer Granholm led the session with a passionate charge to the international community. She named the uncertainty many have been feeling given the upcoming change in presidential administration and said that now is not the time to make excuses and back away from our climate work. To the contrary, it is time to double down on our efforts. She said that the Inflation Reduction Act, Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and other initiatives have set into motion investment, projects, and partnerships that will continue to transition the United States toward its climate goals, even in a new administration.
Secretary Granholm concluded her comments by saying that climate change is barrelling down the tracks like a freight train and we either need to start running or we will get run over.
Delegates centered their comments around the COP29 Presidency’s three priorities for energy.
- COP29 Global Energy Storage and Grids Pledge: A pledge with a target to increase global energy storage capacity six times above 2022 levels, reaching 1,500 gigawatts by 2030.
Battery storage is used to store energy generated by renewables like wind turbines and solar panels. Battery storage allows renewable energy to be used continuously, which smooths out gaps caused by changing weather conditions or times when the sun is low in the sky or at night. The past decade has seen a rapid increase in the use of battery storage and it is getting more and more cost effective. This change has made renewables much more useful as a mainstream electrical provider on a utility scale. The industry is growing and is expected to continue doing so.
- COP29 Hydrogen Declaration: A declaration for both the public and private sectors to unlock the potential of a global market for [clean] hydrogen and its derivatives with guiding principles and priorities, to address regulatory, technological, financing, and standardization barriers.
Hydrogen is a clean burning fuel that generates a significant amount of heat. This makes it well-suited for industrial applications that are difficult to do with electricity, like steel mills and cement production. Although hydrogen itself is clean burning, producing only oxygen and water, generating hydrogen as a fuel can be done in different ways, some of which are carbon neutral and others which rely on the potent greenhouse gas methane. As calls for hydrogen use as a fuel ramp up, it will be important to keep pressure on governments and energy companies to ensure the fuel is being produced in a carbon neutral way.
- COP29 Green Energy Zones and Corridors Pledge: A pledge to commit to green energy zones and corridors, including targets to promote investment, stimulate economic growth, develop, modernize and expand infrastructure, and foster regional cooperation.
Coordination of grids and energy generation across national borders is a strength of the COP process which brings together people from many different countries for a focused time of planning for climate and energy projects. As industries transition to electricity generated by renewables, there is an increased need for transmission lines. These projects can take massive coordination, so focusing on ways to do this efficiently and cooperatively is a goal that will smooth the transition to renewables.