The global energy and climate transition is at the heart of a meeting which is being held this Tuesday and Wednesday in Paris.
Producing energy for humanity, eliminating CO2 emissions for the planet: more than thirty Ministers of Energy or Climate are working on the subject.
This is the first high-level international meeting since COP28 on climate in Dubai (United Arab Emirates) in December 2023, where the world agreed to “transition away” from fossil fuels.
These emit greenhouse gases and are responsible for global warming.
The meeting is organized on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the International Energy Agency (IEA).
This intergovernmental organization attached to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is made up of countries, most of them oil importers.
It was created in the middle of the oil crisis in the 1970s.
Colossal sums to invest each year
How can we continue to produce, move around, heat ourselves, feed ourselves, without warming the climate?
Participants will consider ways to finance the major investments necessary at this critical turning point for the future of life on the planet.
The other element of reflection is to find a way not to create additional inequalities and conflicts, according to Eamon Ryan, Irish Minister of Environment and Climate who chairs the meeting alongside the French Minister of Economy and of Energy, Bruno Le Maire.
“This is the peace project of our times, and we must ensure that all parts of the globe feel supported, not just the rich,” he declared before the opening of the debates.
“If the world wants to develop alternative energies to fossil fuels” which would no longer emit CO2 warming the atmosphere as coal, oil and natural gas currently do, global investments (public and private) will have to reach 4,500 billion dollars per year by 2030, around 4.1 trillion euros.
Of this total, the IEA estimates that “at least 2,200 billion dollars (2,000 billion euros) should be invested each year in emerging and developing countries,” he added.
Special guests, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and US Presidential Climate Envoy John Kerry participate alongside ministers from Colombia, Costa Rica, Egypt, Kenya, Senegal, Singapore and Ukraine in particular.
Bosses of large energy groups and members of civil society will also attend the discussions.
Eamon Ryan also highlighted the “important role” of Brazil.
It will hold the presidency of the G20 (which brings together 19 of the most developed countries as well as the European Union) in 2024, and will be the host country of COP30 in 2025, after COP29, scheduled for Baku (Azerbaijan) at the end of 2024.