From energy crisis to energy transition: How renewables are transforming energy security

For Francesco La Camera, Director General of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), this crisis is also changing the way the world understands the phrase “energy security.”

For decades, that meant a country’s oil and gas reserves. Today, he said, many countries want systems that are more diverse, decentralized and under their control – and renewable energy is critical to that.

From backup to autonomy

Talk to UN NewsJing Zhang at the General Assembly High Level Week, Mr. La Camera traces today’s thinking back to the oil shocks of the 1970s, when the world first treated energy security as a systemic issue and created international bodies to stabilize markets.

At that time, energy security meant only one thing: oil and gas reserves.

“Countries have realized that centralized energy systems based on fossil fuels do not provide energy security,” he said.

Fossil fuel supplies are highly concentrated and largely pass through narrow maritime lanes, so geopolitical shocks can affect global markets in a matter of days.

Renewable energy, he argues, offers the opposite: energy from many sources and places, owned by many different actors.

Countries with higher use of renewable energy, he said, have generally been able to weather the current crisis better. Spain was less affected; in Norway, almost half of road transport is now electric.

The transition is accelerating

The push towards renewable energy used to be primarily driven by the goal of meeting renewable energy needs Paris Agreementsaid Mr. La Camera. Now energy security strengthens this momentum.

“We are moving towards a new energy system based primarily on renewable energy, complemented by the sustainable use of biomass and, most importantly, green hydrogen,” he said.

About 90 percent of new power generation capacity added worldwide each year now comes from renewables, he said, and in China, solar capacity surpassed coal-fired power generation capacity for the first time in history at the end of July.

“The direction of travel is no longer in question,” he said. “The real question is speed and scale.”

Molecules and electrons

Economic competitiveness in the coming years, La Camera said, will depend largely on whether energy systems can produce “molecules” – green hydrogen – and “electrons” – electricity and storage – at lower costs.

Renewable energy, he said, has become one of the most competitive sources of electricity. To address concerns about intermittency, he pointed to IRENA research showing that renewables combined with storage can produce year-round energy – what the agency calls “powerful renewables” – at a cheaper price than gas or nuclear.

Electrification, he added, is important in decarbonization, because buildings, transportation and industry need to be further electrified.

But with faster-than-expected demand growth and slow efficiency improvements, he warned the supply-demand gap in 2030 could be larger than previously estimated.

Tripling renewable energy capacity by 2030 may not be enough – and neither will IRENA 35 by 35 The goal: increasing the share of electricity in final energy consumption to 35 percent by 2035, which is likely the main topic of COP31.

Three challenges

Mr. La Camera identified three priorities:

1. Infrastructure – an interconnected and flexible power grid powered by artificial intelligence and digitalization, plus ports and related facilities;
2. A fairer legal and regulatory environment – because fossil fuels still benefit from subsidies that slow the growth of new systems
3. Labor – retrain workers for the energy systems of the future.

For developing countries, high financing costs and limited power grids add to the challenge: he calls on multilateral financial institutions to make infrastructure and grid modernization a clear priority.

When asked about his message to the world, La Camera didn’t hesitate: “Network, network, network – interconnectivity, flexibility and balance. I think this is the most urgent thing to act on right now.”