According to Agence France-Presse reported on October 11, the United Nations urged a "complete transformation" of the global energy system.
The world needs to double its electricity supply from renewable sources by 2030 in order to prevent climate change from undermining global energy security, the United Nations said on Tuesday.
The UN World Meteorological Organization stressed that the energy sector is not only a major source of carbon emissions that contribute to climate change, but is also increasingly vulnerable to changes brought about by a warming planet.
In its annual State of Climate Services report, the World Meteorological Organization warned that increasingly frequent extreme weather events, droughts, floods and rising sea levels -- all linked to climate change -- have made energy supplies less reliable. The report noted, for example, in Buenos Aires in January that heatwaves caused massive power outages.
The World Meteorological Organization said that in 2020, 87% of the world's electricity from thermal, nuclear and hydroelectric power systems will depend directly on fresh water for cooling.
However, one-third of fossil-fuel power plants are located in water-stressed areas, compared with 15% of nuclear power plants in such areas, which is expected to increase to 25% over the next 20 years.
The World Meteorological Organization said 11 percent of hydroelectric dams are also located in areas with high water stress, and more than a quarter of existing hydroelectric projects and almost as many planned hydroelectric projects are in areas currently facing moderate water stress. to highly deficient watersheds.
Nuclear power plants are also often located in low-lying coastal areas, making them potentially vulnerable to rising sea levels and flooding, the report said.
"Time is against us, and we are witnessing climate change. We need to completely change the global energy system," stressed WMO Secretary-General Petri Taalas.
The energy sector itself is part of the problem, Taalas noted, as it generates about three-quarters of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, which are changing the climate.
"The shift to cleaner energy production...improving energy efficiency is critical," he said.
But he warned that net-zero emissions by 2050 would only be possible "by doubling the supply of low-carbon electricity over the next eight years".
Net zero emissions, or carbon neutrality, means that over a given period of time, carbon dioxide emissions from human activities are balanced by removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere on a global scale.
The World Meteorological Organization report highlights the growing importance of having reliable weather, water and climate services to ensure the resilience of electricity infrastructure and meet rising energy demands.
Switching to renewable energy will help ease the world's growing water stress, the report said. The report notes that solar and wind power use far less water than conventional power plants.
But it warns that current commitments by countries to cut carbon emissions are "far short" of meeting the goals set in the 2015 Paris Agreement.
Global investment in renewable energy "needs to triple by 2050 to put the world on a net-zero trajectory," the report said.
The report specifically calls for more clean energy investment in Africa. The continent is already facing severe drought and other severe impacts from climate change. In the past 20 years, Africa has received only 2% of clean energy investment.
However, with 60% of the planet's best solar resources in Africa, the continent has the potential to be a major player in solar production, the report said.
However, this requires a significant investment. "Providing modern energy to all Africans will require an annual investment of $25 billion," the report said. That's roughly 1 percent of total global energy investment today.