COP19: Joan MacNaughton on importance of energy security

COP19: Joan MacNaughton on importance of energy security

COP19 (16/11/2013) – Joan MacNaughton CB, Executive Chair, World Energy Trilemma, World Energy Council talks about the importance of countries delivering energy security, energy equity and environmental sustainability.

She says that at the moment all countries are struggling to do this, although, some countries are leading the pack and have gotten into the top 25 of the World Energy Council’s index for all three goals. This includes Switzerland, Sweden, Canada, Denmark and the UK.

However, she says no one has gotten into the top 15 because adequate climate change policy frameworks are still missing as countries are still learning how to achieve the right balance.

She says if we neglect even one of these three factors, it will be difficult to retrieve the situation afterwards. She says if countries do not have sustainable energy systems, they will not be able to deliver economic growth and quality of life.

She worries that we are “sleepwalking” into the next too-big-to-fail sector. She says we need to put the policies in place now to avoid the systemic risks which the path of ignoring the carbon impact of what we are doing will cause.

She says that Poland seems to see the point over using coal to power its electricity in the future, however, they are still only 94 out of 129 countries for environmental sustainability.

She says until we find more certainty in the policy framework, businesses are not going to be able to make the right kind of investments on the scale that is needed. That is why, she says, the lack of a climate policy framework constitutes a systemic risk to the sustainability to our energy system.