Equality and funds part of the ingredients to ensure a level transition for all

The first panel session of India Energy Week witnessed a fresh call for action for wealthier countries to help developing nations on their energy transition missions. While the energy needs of the Indian Ocean islands of Seychelles are 95% met from diesel, HE Jean-Francois Ferrari, Designated Minster and Minister for Blue Economy and Fisheries, said his small nation was doing a lot for the natural environment - and what it could in the clean energy agenda.

“We desperately want transition, but transition costs (and) we don’t have the money to pay for it,” he told the Ministerial Session Strategies for a Sustainable and Decarbonised Future. He described his country as a “new frontier” for renewable fuel growth and put out a call for action to aid that transition, including bringing new rather than unwanted old tech others no longer required.

“Accompany us and we will try to do what we can, but what we can’t we need you to come and help us adapt,” he said, citing projects the country is already doing with help from the likes of Abu Dhabi’s Masdar. “It’s a cry for help, because if we don’t do it the world is not a better place and we are no longer there for your holidays,” he added.

HE Lyonpo Loknath Sharma, Bhutan’s Minister for Economic Affairs, called for greater inter-regional trade and balanced supply as he highlighted the unique challenges faced by a hydro energy-intensive nation which is the world’s first to be carbon negative. “Energy is a basic need,” he added.

Africa continues to face apprehension for development aspirations that have a hydrocarbon price tag, was the message from HE January Yusuf Makamba, MP and Tanzania’s Cabinet Minister for Energy. But in order for the continent to grow its economies in lockstep with the wider global energy transition would need others “to put the money where the mouth is”, according to the minister. He said the transition was possible but required resources - but also needed a level playing field between countries so that continents such as Africa weren’t required to leap over a stage in their development.

It is important to have perspective in the transition. Down the line economies should allow, can allow for renewables to stand on their own as good economics

“If gas is good for you to run the economy, but it’s bad for me to generate power, there’s a problem,” he said. “It is important to have perspective in the transition. Down the line economies should allow, can allow for renewables to stand on their own as good economics.” By contrast, Portugal has determined plans to take its renewables energy mix beyond its current 60 per cent with 80 per cent in sight, said HE Dr Ana Fontoura Gouveia, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate.

She revealed the recent energy crisis had allowed her country to “accelerate a plan we’ve been following for quite some years to reach net zero”. In describing Portugal’s “very ambitious climate goals” she stated “energy is the industry of the future” waiting for investment to bring prosperity, but she stressed the need for energy efficiency.

HE Prof Biman Prasad, Fiji’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance and Strategic Planning and Statistics, echoed the latter point as “important to sustain economic growth” as he also stated the case of island nations paying the climate change price for decades of emissions by other regions. But he also highlighted the economic opportunities alongside the environmental benefits of decarbonising and pointed to India’s “energy leadership” as providing impetus in the global south.

“There is enough technology now available (and) every day there is an improvement,” he said, adding that in the long term prices will lower “and there will be more incentive to move towards renewables”. Prasad spoke of the “global goal” to transition, echoing Gouveia’s theme of a “global partnership”, and that those countries that “could afford to do more, should do more”. “It’s going to raise the quality of life for us all,” he added.