Can the targets set under the Paris Agreement be met? Yes. Of course they can. What is more, they can and they must be met.
Yesterday, 22 April, was Earth Day. In relation to this subject, the media tend to report more bad new than good. However, meeting the targets set by the Paris Agreement on Climate Change is not an option. It is not one alternative among others.
In order to meet those targets, there seems to be a need for a change in discourse. We should begin to see it as an opportunity, as a challenge that provides an incentive for progress. We should also accept that it will not always be a simple task, but there is an exciting future ahead of us: cleaner cities, improved air quality, more affordable energy, new ways of powering our vehicles…
The path to creating a greener future involves multi-disciplinary and multi-sector efforts in which different national and international government entities, companies and people in general play an essential part. The transformation of the energy sector also has a key role in bringing it about. The change will be more efficient if everybody cooperates.
The following figures are a sobering reminder of the challenge we face:
- The Paris Agreement has been ratified by 193 countries. Although there have been important withdrawals, few causes have achieved greater consensus than this. Few ideas have managed to bring together so many people, so much talent, and so much effort. Is there work to be done? Naturally, but what has been achieved has not been trivial in the least.
- The long-term outlook in almost all developed countries is quite good. There is a growing proportion of clean energies.
- According to the European Union, we should generate 27% of our electricity from sustainable sources by 2030. The proportion to which many countries are committed is even higher. Even in more rapidly growing, emerging economies, progress is being made in this field. Another significant case is that of China, one of the countries with the greatest margin for improvement in terms of energy: in a short space of time, it has changed from a nation with a great dependence on coal and oil to become a leader in the use of cleaner sources of energy.
- Enagás is committed to a long-term project for the future than will ensure the transition to a more sustainable and cleaner world. We believe that natural gas, in addition to other renewable gases (biogas/biomethane, hydrogen, etc.) will play a key part in this new mix. As we state in our Annual Report, gas is and will continue to be the most competitive and clean source of energy to satisfy heating requirements and to guarantee the economic feasibility of local industry. It provides the necessary support and flexibility to secure an electricity supply that is compatible with a high penetration of renewable sources, at the lowest cost. Our strategy for transport, particularly through Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), is ambitious: a new form of mobility is possible that is less polluting and more efficient, in which this fuel will play a vital part.
Where this subject is concerned, it is important to have a positive and inspired outlook. The millions of people who took part yesterday in thousands of initiatives that took place all over the planet are the best indication that the future is in good hands.