Going green is financially sensible

PARIS // The drop in global oil revenues should be incentive enough for all countries to increase their investment in renewable energy, experts at the Paris COP21 climate conference said on Saturday.

Almost all the GCC countries were facing troubled times ahead because of their dependence on fossil fuels, said Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency (Irena), which is based in Abu Dhabi.

“The exception is the United Arab Emirates, as they are the first to move towards renewable energy and energy efficiency,” he said.

Mr Birol criticised many MENA countries’ policies towards renewables and claimed their policies failed to reflect a true intention to shift to renewables.

“If you on one hand say I want to increase the share of renewables and on the other hand you have huge subsidies for the rivals of the renewables, then you may want to look at the consistency of your energy policies carefully,” he said.

“Putting subsidies on fuels is like having your meal and when you want to drink something you ask for diet coke, but after the meal you eat a big plate of baklava, there is no consistency.

“It is not acceptable, so therefore I would praise those countries, like the UAE, that are trying to phase out the subsidies’ of fossil fuels.”

Dr Ahmad Belhoul, chief executive of Masdar, said the UAE had taken the drop in oil prices as a red flag towards any policy that would make the country heavily dependent on one source of income. “The fact that oil went down by 50 per cent is the very reason why you need to invest in renewables,” he said.

He added that the policies in the UAE were not only geared towards breaking the dependence on oil as a source of income but they were also aimed at developing new forms of energy production for the benefit of the country as a consumer.

Not only was solar power cleaner but it was also cheaper now to implement.

The technology, he said, was also a perfect match for the region as it generates the most electricity during summer – historically the GCC’s most energy demanding time.

Adnan Amin, director-general of Irena, hoped said that all countries needed to shift their focus when it came to energy, although he admitted that it was an uphill battle to change long-held patterns of thought and behaviour.

“There was a BBC journalist who was saying that with the oil prices plummeting, low oil would kill renewables,” he said.

“I asked him the question, ‘why is it such a big talking point for the western press that oil is falling and yet you don’t talking about the fact that solar pv prices have declined by 75 per cent in the past four years’.”

A look inside the GCC pavilion at COP21 in Paris: