Climate change is one of the newest challenges facing the energy industry, according to Ricardo Raineri, the International Association for Energy Economics (IAEE) president in a recent interview.
After the second IAEE Eurasian Conference in Croatia's capital Zagreb that ran between Oct. 12 and 14, Raineri said in order to counteract the pressure the sector faces from climate change, more renewable energy sources will have to be used.
He explained that the main challenges the energy sector faces against climate change are 'CO2 emissions from fossil fuels.' He added that 'as long we do not come up with economically feasible solutions to manage and capture CO2 emissions, we are going to see increasing pressure on the energy sector to reduce emissions, mostly related to the burning of fossil fuels.'
'If we do not learn how to better manage CO2 emissions, constraints will be placed on available energy sources to satisfy our increasing energy needs,' he added.
He suggested as a solution that 'the use of larger shares of low CO2 emissions technologies, such as renewables, natural gas power plants instead of coal and oil in power generation.'
He also advocated nuclear energy for those that have advanced knowledge of the technology and for countries in which it is socially acceptable. He also proposed the promotion of energy efficiency and more efficient and cleaner means of transportation such as electric and hybrid vehicles.
Raineri believes that greater investments will be made in cleaner technologies from now on, and affirmed that many countries in compliance with the Paris agreement will apply restraints through higher pricing on the use of more polluting energy technologies.
'We will need to change how we design and operate our energy and electrical systems, integrating a larger number of technologies, with new storage capabilities, and better communication and control systems,' he concluded.
By Huseyin Erdogan
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr