Importance of working together to achieve sustainability goals

Key news of the past week about renewable energy industry and climate change

• Oil kingdom’s green shift: Saudi Arabia’s solar energy investment solars (Innovation Origins)
• Kuwait’s Al Hamra Business Tower Embraces Clean Energy Through Solar Panel Integration (Solar Quarter)
• 'Significant bottlenecks': EU has same amount of solar panels stockpiled as installed, says report (Euronews)
• Wildfires ravage 6% of Canary Islands as crews tackle blazes in Greece and Italy (Euronews)
• A year on, Europe less fearful of U.S. green subsidies push (Reuters)
• Solar AI wants to make solar power more accessible in Southeast Asia (TechCrunch)
• Sales of solar energy kits rise to 5.2 mn globally in second half of 2022 (Business Standard)
• Solar panels to surround Dulles Airport will deliver power to 37,000 homes (Yahoo News)
• The Green Climate Fund needs urgent replenishment (Financial Times)
• The search for winners in the new battery era (Financial Times)
• Firefighters in Greece tackle more than 200 wildfires in 48 hours (The Guardian)

Renewable energy industry news: 

Speaking about sustainable projects, there is an escalating competition between companies from different sectors–from automotive to mining–to become the leaders in the burgeoning and constantly-changing electric vehicle battery market. As Peter Campbell , Harry Dempsey wrote for the Financial Times , there is a gnawing sense of uncertainty as to the direction in which the industry will evolve, so companies are making their bets. 

In another area of the renewables sector, I found myself worried after reading Euronews ’ report, which states that Europe has the same amount of solar panels stockpiled as it has installed, which shows that, despite all of its benefits, there are still significant barriers in place to get solar panels efficiently installed. It is critical that we figure this out, as sales of solar energy kits keep rising, as reported by the Business Standard . In the second half of 2022, the number of solar energy kits sold amounted to 5.2 million. 

Climate Change Agenda: 

Many regions of the world are grappling with the negative effects of climate change, including the intensification of natural disasters, like wildfires. For example, in Greece, as Jon Henley reported for The Guardian , firefighters had to battle over 200 fire incidents in 48 hours, and the summer heatwave continues to wreak havoc in other places like France and Italy. Similarly, as chronicled by Euronews , blazes have ravaged approximately 6 percent of the Canary Islands. 

These incidents are heartbreaking, and I cannot emphasize enough the importance of working together to reach our sustainability goals. In this regard, an important treaty is the Paris Agreement, as it solidifies the commitment of several nations to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. However, as Mahmoud Mohieldin , the UN Climate Change High-Level Champion for COP27 and an Executive Director at the International Monetary Fund , wrote a few days ago in the Financial Times , many countries are struggling to fulfill their obligations due to the lack of adequate funding.

A solution for this, as Mohieldin stresses in his compelling op-ed, is the urgent replenishment of the Green Climate Fund, which, since it is financed by some of the world’s most developed nations, injects funds into more fragile economies so that smaller nations can develop sustainable projects. 

International news: 

This shows that, globally, we are making progress, and I would like to take a moment to acknowledge other important developments in the sustainability realm:

• Up to 37,000 homes in the vicinity of Washington D.C.’s Dulles International Airport will soon be powered by over 200,000 solar panels that are being laid out close to the airport runways
• Saudi Arabia, historically one of the world’s largest oil producers, is making strides to develop renewable energy projects, including a $1.6 billion investment in Shuaiba, the nation’s largest solar project
• Also in the Middle East, Kuwait, another notable player in the global oil market, is embracing cleaner energies by installing solar panels on the roof of the parking complex at Al Hamra Business Tower and Shopping Center, one of the nation’s iconic skyscrapers
• Solar AI Technologies, a Singapore-based startup, recently raised $1.5 million in funding to make solar power affordable in Southeast Asia
• Europe’s fears of losing cleantech companies to the US due to America’s Inflation Reduction Act have now eased, as many national governments in the continent have been matching the subsidies European companies would receive in the United States, according to Reuters

Something that really excites me is that countries that have been traditional exporters of fossil fuels–like Saudi Arabia and Kuwait–are making conscious decisions to transition to cleaner energies, which showcases their understanding of the current global landscape in terms of sustainability. I am looking forward to seeing how these projects develop, and whether other nations follow suit. As I mentioned before, to meet our sustainability goals, we all need to be on the same page and do our part.