The Institute of Energy Security (IES) has asked all governments to deal with the issue of climate change with the same urgency they are attaching to dealing with the coronavirus pandemic.

A statement issued by Paa Kwasi Aanamua Sakyi, Executive Director of IES, said there are some similarities between COVID-19 and climate change, for which the two must be dealt with seriously.

“Given the weight of climate change crisis, all efforts to minimise the human and economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic present a momentous opportunity to step up the technologies required to speed the transition to cleaner energy, especially when there are available data to show that costs from all commercially available renewable power generation technologies keeps declining,” the statement said.

It quoted the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENE) as saying that the global weighted-average cost of electricity declined by 26 per cent year-on-year for concentrated solar power (CSP), followed by bioenergy (-14 per cent), solar photovoltaic (PV) and onshore wind (both -13 per cent), hydropower (-12 per cent), geothermal and offshore wind (both -1 per cent).

The low and falling technology costs make renewables the competitive backbone of energy de-carbonisation, a crucial climate goal.

“Given the similarities, a more global coordinated effort and encompassing approach is necessary to fight the twin threat of the coronavirus crisis and climate change, and that, at a minimum, global leaders must eschew protectionist approaches,” the statement stressed.