Page 13 - AsiaElec Week 20 2022

AsiaElec ENERGY TRANSITION AsiaElec

Guterres calls for jump-start

for energy transition

GLOBAL UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has knowledge, investments and discoveries — not
called for a five-point plan “to jump start the just give them away, AP reported.
renewable energy transition,” ahead of the Guterres also said he wanted to broaden
COP27 summit in Egypt in November. access to supply chains and raw materials that
Speaking as the World Meteorological go into renewable technologies, which are now
Organisation said this week that the last seven concentrated in a few powerful countries.
years have been the hottest on record, Guterres He also called on governments to reform
stressed that time was running out and that “to ways that can promote renewable energies, such
keep 1.5 alive and prevent the worst impacts as by fast-tracking solar and wind projects.
of the climate crisis, the world must act in this He urged a shift away from government sub-
decade.” sidies for fossil fuels that now total a half-trillion
The WMO warned that the impact of dollars per year.
extreme weather had led to deaths and disease, “While people suffer from high prices at the
migration, and economic losses in the hundreds pump, the oil and gas industry is raking in bil-
of billions of dollars. lions from a distorted market,” Guterres said.
In the six-month run-to COP27, Guterres “This scandal must stop.”
called for fostering technology transfer and lift- Finally, Guterres says private and public
ing of intellectual property protections in renew- investments in renewable energy must triple
able technologies, like battery storage. to at least $4 trillion per year. He noted that
Such ambitions – as with his call for transfers government subsidies for fossil fuels are today
of technologies aimed to fight COVID-19 – can more than three times higher than those for
cause innovators and their financial backers to renewables.™
bristle: They want to reap the benefits of their

Afghanistan says it owes

$100mn for energy imports

AFGHANISTAN AFGHANISTAN’S Ministry of Energy and that could be used in hydropower production to
Water (MoEW) has informed local media that eliminate the need for domestic power.
the country owes more than $100mn for elec- The Taliban government is, meanwhile,
tricity imported from neighbouring countries. attempting to increase energy production from
Some 73% of the country’s power consump- coal-fired production at industrial operations in
tion is imported — 22% from Iran, 4% from an effort to maximise use of the country’s raw
Tajikistan, 17% from Turkmenistan and 57% materials.
from Uzbekistan. According to Da Afghanistan Breshna
The ministry’s spokesman, Akhtar Moham- Sherkat (DABS), approximately 35% of the
mad Nusrat, stated that banks in Central Asian Afghan population has access to electricity,
countries, particularly Uzbekistan and Tajik- including inhabitant of the major cities. Many
istan, were having difficulty transferring money, rural areas lack 24-hour electricity access. This
preventing the debts from being paid. would change if the major CASA-1000 project
“Uzbekistan has its own problems, we want to to import electricity from Central Asia was
pay, but the problem is in the banks,” Nusrat said, completed.
according to TOLOnews quoted. The $1.16bn project remains under con-
Meanwhile, Kabul residents have reportedly struction that is severely delayed. It would allow
criticised the government’s strategy of importing surplus hydroelectricity from Kyrgyzstan and
energy from neighbouring countries, claiming Tajikistan to be exported to Afghanistan and
that Afghanistan has abundant water resources also to Pakistan.™

Week 20 18•May•2022 www. NEWSBASE .com P13