Equity and funding are the major challenges facing energy transitions, according to a session exploring the topic on the second day of Qatar Foundation’s Earthna Summit 2023.
The session brought together a group of experts in the field of energy and sustainability who discussed how international policies are affecting current energy transition, and the tools and plans countries are using to decarbonise their economies.
Shedding light on the challenges in the area of global energy transition, Omran Hamad al-Kuwari, CEO, Qatar Foundation International (QFI) said, “We need to consider cumulative carbon emissions as many countries have contributed to the emissions in ways others haven’t. And what tends to be the case is that the countries that are most affected by climate change are the ones who have emitted the least.
“And, unfortunately, although renewable energy capacity is increasing at a rapid pace in various parts of the world, that development cannot really happen the same way in other countries.
“The other challenge is funding – how to enable developing countries reach their energy transition targets and transfer the required resources and knowledge to them in a way that is equitable.”
The session also heard from Dr Dhabia al-Mohannadi, assistant professor, Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M University in Qatar – a QF partner university – who spoke about the multiple policies that governments can follow to reduce their CO2 emission, and the need to understand where the emissions come from depending on each country’s specific emissions profile.
“In Qatar, a lot of our CO2 emission is coming from the extraction of natural gas and separating CO2 in the process of liquefied natural gas production,” she said.
“The rest comes mainly from the power and water sector. Once the emissions profile is understood, the tools that can help in energy transition are then looked at. It can be economic tools, technological tools, or policies that are adapted from international level to a local level.
Dr Dhabia al-Mohannadi explained that with Qatar having adopted the climate targets of reducing emission by 25% over the coming years, “most of these emissions would be reduced by using more efficient technologies in the industrial sector.”
The session reflected that the age of unabated fossil fuel production is being left behind. Even for companies that will continue to use fossil fuels, they are trying to reduce their emissions.