Patrice Geoffron, director of the Center for Geopolitics of Energy and Raw Materials, said on franceinfo Monday that it is necessary to help coal-mining countries and sub-Saharan Africa to find resources and not to go through the coal box.
Posted
Update
Reading time : 1 min.
“Coal still weighs 35% of electricity production” in the world “and it remains the essential sector in emerging and developing countries”, explained on franceinfo Patrice Geoffron, director of the Center for Geopolitics of Energy and Raw Materials, while the issue of coal is one of the issues raised during the COP26 which opened on Monday, November 1 in Glasgow ( Scotland). The researcher notes that these countries, such as India, China, South Africa “use the same development model as that in Europe in the 20th century.”
>> DIRECT. COP26: India will achieve carbon neutrality in 2070, says Prime Minister Narendra Modi
To succeed in getting out of coal, it is also necessary “allow not only the coal mining countries, but also the countries of sub-Saharan Africa which are without electricity, to find resources and not to go through the coal box”, by opting instead for renewable energies. So is the “credibility of the Paris agreement”, which foresees that the most fragile countries will receive 100 billion dollars each year for this transition.
Since the Paris Agreement in 2015, the number of new power plant projects has fallen “very strongly two-thirds” observes the researcher, even if China, India or even Germany and the United States remain dependent on coal. The question of the substitution of coal is at the heart of the subject, “in particular the use of gas” with an increasing energy price.
The alternative represented by renewable energies is also experiencing a dynamic, according to Patrice Geoffron. The price of photovoltaics and wind power “collapsed over the past decade.” “It weighs quite little in the global energy mix, around 5%”, corn “There is growth and it is also a hope for the 700 million inhabitants who have no electricity at all”.