UN Climate chief: Iran war supercharges clean energy transition

U.N. Climate Secretary?Said Thursday that the Iran war has "supercharged" the global shift to'renewable energy' as countries scramble to lower their exposure to volatile oil markets. The U.S. and Israeli 'war with Iran' has disrupted?oil & gas supplies. Some countries have rationed fuel, while others have rolled out tax cuts and subsidies to protect consumers from surging costs.

Early indications suggest that the war, which started two months ago is speeding up certain countries' low carbon transition. The demand for?solar rooftop systems has risen across Europe, and countries like Pakistan have seen a rise in the sales of?electric vehicles. This month, Chinese President Xi Jinping urged the development of a 'new energy system' to ensure energy security. He also called for the expansion of nuclear energy and hydropower.

Simon Stiell is the Executive Secretary of UNFCCC, the U.N. climate secretariat.

Stiell said that renewables are a safer, cheaper and cleaner source of energy. They can be freed from the constraints of shipping lanes or conflicts around the world. The war has also led some countries to use more highly polluting coal and furnace oil for power generation in order to replace the gas coming from the Middle East.

Murat Kurum, Turkey's climate minister who will be presiding over this year's COP31 U.N. climate summit in Copenhagen, said that fossil fuel reliance now tops the global political agenda.

In a statement issued after the IEA conference, he stated that "the best way to protect the citizens from the violent fluctuations of the global energy'markets' is to accelerate clean-energy?transition." Around 60 countries, including Brazil, Germany and Canada, met this week in Colombia for a summit on phasing out fossil fuels.

The conference?hosts, Colombia and the Netherlands, said that they had agreed on Thursday to continue to work over the next 12 months on ways to implement this in their respective trade systems. (Reporting and editing by Keith Weir.)

(source: Reuters)