Need for synergy between climate and energy governance.

Energy basket and climate change are intertwined, countries’ ambitions for higher economic growth rates will depend on energy accessibility and affordability, which in turn is going to have an effect on global climate. However, it is appalling to see that the interdependence of climate policies and energy-related legislation are not in synchronization. The fact that policymakers still continue to believe that both climate and energy can be dealt with in silos doesn’t inspire hope.

The synergy between climate and energy policies will enable better control over achieving national and international goals with respect to ambient temperature. The Paris Agreement aims to keep the rise in the global average temperature below 2 degrees and the global energy mix is going to have an enormous say in if we are going to achieve the target or fall short.

The push towards renewable energies and the phasing out of fossil fuel energy will gather greater momentum if indexed with climate goals, the fossil fuel lobby is very strong especially in the developing countries sitting on vast resources of coal reserves, thus aligning national climate policy with energy legislation will push for an environmentally benign energy adoption.

One major challenge is the lack of ambition shown by the developed countries, otherwise referred to as the ‘Global North’ in the transfer of technology and funds to the developing and least developed countries, also known as the ‘Global South’. The Green Climate Fund was conceived at the Cancun summit of UNFCCC as a dedicated financial vehicle to finance the developing countries has failed to live up to its potential. The lack of pledged funds and potential reliance on the private sector is controversial and has been criticized by developing countries. Hence to get a synchronisation of climate and energy governance there has to be a symbiotic relationship between the developed and developing nations. One other challenge in integration is the presence of multiple authorities within the governments, decision making structures and academia that prevent further amalgamation, it is common to see a separate climate division and an energy division that may not closely operate under the same umbrella to get both the aspects working in unison.

It is of vital importance to align and integrate the climate and energy policies especially when the world is heading for at least a3°C temperature rise this century, according to current Paris Agreement pledges. Even if we limit global warming to well below 2°C, or even 1.5°C, the poor countries will suffer.