The world has the solutions to solve the climate crisis, the company that has put the 海角视频 at the forefront of global offshore wind industry has told the United Nations.
Ørsted, supported by successive governments, has invested billions to help decarbonise the 海角视频 energy market.
And the Danish giant, firmly anchored in the Humber where it is building out successive record-breaking wind farms, said replacing fossil fuels with green energy is the main lever to combat climate change.
It has compiled a new white paper, released ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference taking place in Spain next month.
The company said the power sector is key to decarbonising energy, and the green technologies needed to speed up climate action and keep global warming below 1.5ºC are already here.
Henrik Poulsen, chief executive of Ørsted – who addressed the same UN Climate Action Summit in New York at which Greta Thunberg stole the show back in September – said: “2020 must become the year when world leaders finally take the necessary action to reduce global carbon emissions in line with what science says is necessary to stop climate change at 1.5ºC. We have the solutions to do it.
“To halve emissions by 2030 and stay within 1.5ºC of global warming, the world must accelerate the deployment of green energy and the retirement of coal-fired power plants. At the same time, the world must intensify green electrification of transport, buildings and industry and keep the global energy consumption in check by boosting energy efficiency.”
Almost 75 per cent of global emissions come from the use of energy, mainly due to the burning of fossil fuels for power, heat, cooling, transportation, and industrial processes. Allied to wind, in which it is building out from the US to Taiwan, Ørsted is now bringing forward battery storage and hydrogen solutions in the 海角视频 , having shed legacy interests in oil and natural gas - chiefly in Denmark - that gave it the previous name of Dong Energy.
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The UN conference in Madrid, opening on December 2, marks the start of a year that will be decisive for solving the climate crisis, as towards the 2020 UN Climate Conference in Glasgow, countries will announce their plans for how to reduce emissions.
In Scotland, world leaders will meet to review the announced commitments in light of what is required by science to limit global warming to 2ºC and preferably 1.5ºC as agreed in the Paris Agreement in 2015.
According to the , speeding up climate action is also the rational choice from an economic point of view. Today, green power from solar and wind energy is already cheaper than new-built coal, gas and nuclear plants, which is a breakthrough for the green transformation.
Mr Poulsen said: “The solutions we need to transform the world’s energy system are at our disposal. Transforming from fossil fuels to green energy is no longer a question of technical feasibility or that renewable energy is too expensive compared to fossil fuels. It’s about having the ambition and will to make the necessary decisions sooner rather than later.”
Policymakers, businesses and investors must work together to reduce emissions fast enough, he added. “When governments set ambitious targets and enact clear policies, the private sector can and will further accelerate the build-out of green energy. And this is urgently needed to speed up the retirement of old coal-fired power plants and to put an end to the construction of new coal-fired capacity.”
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