At an event held by the energy industry on Monday ( October 21 ), ministers from New Zealand and Cambodia stated that political risks associated with potential loss of public support are a major obstacle to switching to cleaner energy sources.
” It’s incredibly important to take the public with you, given that end of the day, they have to believe that what you’re doing is enhancing their lives”, Shane Jones, Associate Minister for Energy, New Zealand, said at the Singapore International Energy Week conference ( SIEW).
Jones said New Zealand’s electricity levies are similar to Singapore’s, ranking among the highest in the Asia-Pacific area.
” If the public feel that they ca n’t see the upside of the medium- to long-term climate-positive outcomes, and they’re suffering disproportionately on the journey, it leads to political mayhem”, Jones said.
Cambodia’s energy secretary, Keo Rottanak, said the change in Southeast Asia towards net zero may be expensive and taking a long time.
” If we do n’t bring costs down, we may lose the public support, and therefore it will just make the whole thing go away”, he said.
At the same function, Amin Nasser, CEO of Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest oil producing business, cited limits of recent change programs.
The cost of investment is more than twice as high in developing nations where there is greater want, according to him, in a transition that necessitates astronomical amounts of front-end capital investment.
” Let’s be clear: decades to come, all sources of energy may be required. He urged managers to abandon their conviction that a second program can meet the needs of more than 200 nations.
The change “would be costly for everyone”, he said.
According to Nasser, current plans have n’t even been successful in reducing the demand for carbon-intensive coal.
” Trying to force an impossible, costly transition plan on them will just threaten their financial progress and also social cohesion”, he said, referring to the world South.