Climate innovation: Wins, challenges and gaps

What steps are needed to drive climate innovation and make zero-emission technologies the most affordable, accessible and attractive choice?

During the World Economic Forum in Davos, Philanthropist Bill Gates, the US special presidential envoy for climate John Kerry, CEO of energy firm Vattenfall Anna Borg, and Yasmine Fouad, Egypt’s Minister of Environment, discussed the key actions utilities, governments and the private sector are planning to accelerate climate action and innovation.

2021 climate action achievements

According to John Kerry, the world is advancing towards climate action goals, however, the pace remains slower than required to mitigate climate change.

He said: “The dangers mount and will not completely diminish.”

However, the progress made at the last COP26 summit in Glasgow is a step forward in the right direction, Kerry added.

Kerry applauded the pledge made by countries that make up 65% of the global GDP to align policies with the Paris Climate Change Agreement and the 109 countries that committed to reducing methane emissions by 30% which, according to the International Energy Agency, would be equivalent to operating every truck, vehicle, plane, and ship at net-zero.

Kerry celebrated the ‘unprecedented’ engagement made by the private sector in committing to increasing investments in technology research and development and deployment.

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He said: “No government in the world has the money to help in the achievement of climate action goals,” and as such increased participation by the private sector in funding the development and rollout of smart solutions is vital.

Private investors directed $40 billion in climate technology in 2021, a record level, whilst climate technology firms created more shareholder value and the US committed $20 billion in clean energy R&D, according to Kerry.

Some other developments that Kerry highlighted as a step forward made to mitigate climate change include China, the world’s largest emitter, agreeing to fast-forward its transition away from coal to 2026 and the G7 countries’ pledge to end external funding of coal.

Kerry also commended India, the world’s third-largest emitter after the US, for committing to deploy 450GW of renewables capacity in the next ten years to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels.

Energy transition challenges

However, factors including an increase in the use of coal in Europe as utilities seek to address soaring energy prices and global governments investing too little than required in clean energy research and development are some of the stumbling blocks to a faster energy transition, according to Kerry.

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Global economies also continue to use coal. Despite a massive decrease in emissions in 2020 owing to the pandemic, coal usage increased by 9% globally in 2021 compared to 2020, resulting in an increase in emissions, according to Kerry.

Countries continue to build more coal power stations with over 300GW of new coal capacity currently in the construction pipeline.

“We are feeding the same problem we are trying to solve,” said Kerry.

He added: “Amongst the 46 technologies that will play a role in 50% of the reductions in emissions that we need in the next ten years, 44 are not moving fast enough.”

Solutions to climate action challenges

Bill Gates said one of the main challenges hindering climate action is that the technologies we need to reduce emissions are still expensive and as such, there is a need for more funding to be directed towards reducing the costs of technology development and deployment.

The philanthropist said rich countries need to play a leading role in technology research and development and funding. He added that they must create policies such as carbon taxes to drive the demand for clean technologies.

Gates added that pairing new technologies with big companies that have the skills and capacity to build solutions at scale will help speed up decarbonisation and reduce costs.

Government and private sector subsidies will also need to continue to increase, according to Gates, with up to $2.5 trillion in subsidies having been directed towards climate solutions in the past five years.

Gates urged governments and energy stakeholders to invest heavily in finding replacement technologies for fossil fuels such as small modular nuclear reactors as well as assist developing economies and smaller utilities in their efforts to move away from coal.

Kerry reiterated: “Solar and wind are by far net cheaper than coal, and gas. And gas is less polluting than coal and we accept that it is a bridge but what we don’t want to see is a huge build-up of gas plants in the next years unless there is carbon abatement.”

Yasmine Fouad highlighted the importance of youth participation in technology innovation in mitigating climate change.

Anna Borg called for increased use of energy efficiency, circular economy and increased participation of consumers in the energy transition.

The speakers called for collaboration between developed and developing economies in the energy revolution.

The discussion follows the majority of government officials stating that climate change is the scariest and most important challenge they are facing, according to a study conducted by the World Economic Forum.

Find out more about the Accelerating and Scaling Up Climate Innovation session.