Page 9 - AfrElec Week 24

AfrElec RENEWABLES AfrElec
RENEWABLES: G20 talks up hydrogen fuel
AFRICA
G20 energy ministers have issued a major call for the increased use of various renewable energies, especiallyhydrogen,amidwiderconcernsabout energy security.
e ministers committed themselves to step- ping up existing international e orts to utilise hydrogen as a fuel. Japan is a leading supporter of hydrogen fuel and used its hosting of the meeting to press its case.
e meeting built on the launch on the Inter- national Energy Agency’s (IEA) recent report on hydrogen fuel.
e agency argued that hydrogen played a key role in decarbonisation, especially in indus- trial sectors where reducing emissions is proving to be di cult.
The IEA identified long-haul transport, chemicals, and iron and steel as being ideal can- didates for using hydrogen.
ere are currently 11,200 hydrogen-pow- ered cars worldwide. Existing government tar- getscallforthatnumbertoincreasedramatically to 2.5 million by 2030.
Hydrogen can also drive energy storage, cut pollution and strengthen energy security.
e report pointed to the recent successes of solar PV, wind, batteries and electric vehicles. They have shown that policy and technology innovation can lead to the development of new technologies.
“Hydrogen is today enjoying unprecedented momentum, driven by governments that both import and export energy, as well as the renew- ables industry, electricity and gas utilities, auto- makers, oil and gas companies, major technology rms and big cities,” said IEA chief Fatih Birol.
“The world should not miss this unique chance to make hydrogen an important part of ourcleanandsecureenergyfuture,”headded.
e IEA launched its report on the future of hydrogen at the G20 energy and environment ministers summit in Japan on June 14.
e energy ministers also called for expand- ing the use of LNG and clean coal technology in a bid to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
Such clean coal technology includes carbon capture and storage (CCS) and carbon capture and usage (CCU) technologies.
Japanese Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) Hiroshige Seko said coal was still necessary, but that better technology could reduce its emissions.
“It’s inevitable that in some countries, coal thermal has to be used. ... Japan’s coal thermal power, compared with conventional coal ther- mal power, has fewer carbon dioxide emissions and we should provide and implement it in developingcountries,”hesaid.
“With innovation CCS and CCU, coal emis- sions can be captured, stored, used, or recycled,” he added.
As well as energy, the G20 ministers dra ed the outline of a new international framework to tackle the problem of marine plastic waste.
The pioneering, non-binding framework calls for G20 governments to share policies, plans and measures to identify the best practices for preventing and reducing the discharge of plastic into the world’s oceans.
G20 president Japan is due to hold further summits on energy and the environment later in 2019. ™
Week 24 19•June•2019 w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m P9