Page 5 - AfrElec Week 27 2022

AfrElec COMMENTARY AfrElec

environmental protection rules and softening its in fact suffers little chance of being seriously held
emissions regulations and pollution standards. back by the impact of the war in Ukraine and the
A new law will allow the construction of pipe- current energy price shocks. Indeed, he argues
lines and roads through protected areas with no that high prices are more closely related to the
environmental reviews. The government has continued reliance on fossil fuels, and that wind
also delayed by two years its flagship Clean Air and solar offer cheaper power generation.
Project, which aims to control pollution in cities. “The basic point being lost is that high prices
are the result of reliance on fossil. The crisis
Politics means that the faster we can get off reliance on
On a Europe level, the energy price crisis makes fossil fuels the faster we are going to have afforda-
it more complicated to harness the support from ble, stable and predictable energy prices. The
governments and industry to push through new way that politics is could make some politicians
policies, as industry seeks to combat higher reluctant to put through the change, or could
energy prices and governments worry about the lead to political shifts, where parties just promise
political impact of higher domestic heating and cheap gasoline for everyone.”
power bills. He insists that the current shock cannot derail
For example, the new rules for the EU’s the underlying trend that the price of renewables
CBAM, which aims to introduce a carbon border is falling, as fossil fuels become more and more
tax and prevent imports of cheaper steel, chem- uncompetitive, despite any short-term policy
icals and such like, were recently only passed by choices by government.
Parliament after opposition from industry and “This political backlash is going to try to pre-
right-of-centre parties. vent economics playing out in the energy sector.
Myllyvirta stressed that the CBAM targets But the economics are undeniable.”
hard-to-decarbonise sector of industry, which
have large emissions, but that such mechanisms Temperatures
to reduce emissions come at considerable cost to 2022 has seen heatwaves come early to Asia and
industry. Europe, while the Arctic is now heating up seven
“Member states want to provide those sectors times faster than the rest of the world, with the
with free emissions allocations, and on the other region’s ice in danger of melting completely by
hand they want to enact the CBAM to neutral- 2050.
ise the carbon price they face. You can’t really do Such unprecedented increases in temperature
both. You can’t decide not to impose the carbon in the Arctic threaten to make efforts to reduce
price, and on the other hand to impose counter- CO2 emissions, limit global warming and deal
vailing duties to offset the carbon price.” with climate change almost worthless.
Myllyvirta said that these debates were part of Iran recorded in June one of the hottest days,
long-term trends towards a green transition that 52.2°C, since records began, while in the French

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