IEF Secretary General Participates in G20 Energy and Climate Ministerial Meeting
NAPLES, Italy: The International Energy Forum (IEF) Secretary General Joseph McMonigle participated in the G20 Ministerial meeting on Energy and Climate Friday along with the heads of other international organizations, nearly 25 ministers in person and others via video link.
In his remarks to ministers, Mr McMonigle encouraged G20 Energy and Climate Ministers to focus on supporting innovative technological solutions and more research and development spending to tackle carbon emissions.
"The time is now to accelerate carbon management, including technologies under the heading of carbon capture, use and storage, which will enable countries to achieve their climate goals faster without compromising energy security or affordable access," Mr McMonigle said.
"The world needs to focus on carbon capture use and storage right now in the same way that it prioritized energy efficiency after the 1973 oil market shock," he added.
During its presidency of the G20, Italy aims to reconcile environmental protection with progress and human wellbeing, placing the ecological transition at the centre of the political agenda, and promoting a coordinated and global response to pandemics that is based on science.
Exploring opportunities for a sustainable and inclusive recovery enabled by innovative technological solutions of the energy sector was one key topic of debate over the two days of meetings, which also covered combating climate change, accelerating the ecological transition, making financial flows consistent with the Paris Agreement objectives, and building smart, resilient and sustainable cities.
Italy launched a new initiative at the meeting focused on helping regions, states and cities to achieve climate neutrality latest by 2050 and enhance resilience.
Mr McMonigle said one way to prioritize carbon capture technologies would be to include them in National Recovery Plans, ESG standards, and Nationally Determined Contributions made under the Paris accord. This would help mobilize public support and create a more reliable market context for investors, he added.
The IEF, with its 71 members representing 90 percent of the global energy market, offers a platform to develop more comprehensive CCUS strategies that provide investors the certainty they require, and governments the assurances that energy and climate policy goals will be reliably met and at an acceptable cost.
Mr McMonigle also held bilateral meetings with several country members during the G20 meeting in Naples.
