World Energy Council expresses concern on climate talk progress

The World Energy Council has expressed concern about the level of progress and ambition over the state of climate talks.

The World Energy Council said in a statement on Friday that it was to write to all parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change expressing concern over the level of progress and ambition over the state of the climate talks.

The World Energy Council's 2015 Executive Assembly and World Energy Leaders' Summit held from 26 to 30 Oct. in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa was wrapped up on Friday.

The message from the World Energy Council's meetings during its Executive Assembly in Addis Ababa is that key actions are required to enable the energy sector to deliver a sustainable energy system, said the statement from the Council.

"The energy leaders' community is increasingly concerned about the slow progress and level of ambition in the negotiations ahead of the COP21 meeting in Paris. We want to affirm to the parties that the energy sector across the world is ready to respond to a strong signal from Paris to accelerate the energy transition," said Christoph Frei, Secretary General of the World Energy Council.

In the message, which has been developed following extensive consultation with energy leaders from the private and public sector around the world, the World Energy Council is calling for "a clear carbon pricing scheme in line with the global objectives that will allow all to make efficient economic decisions."

Recognizing the many measures already being undertaken on the ground and to be discussed in Paris, the Council's leadership has highlighted that this measure is the key priority to enable the historic energy transition taking place.

The message urges determined pragmatism from all sides to deliver such a global agreement that enables significant on-going action beyond dogmatism, according to the statement.

In an address to the World Energy Council's annual meeting in Addis Ababa, Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, responded to the message, highlighting the leadership of the organisation in the run-up to Paris, and said, "It is encouraging to see the messages from the World Energy Council to the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris."

"These messages are a strong signal that the energy transformation that is by now inevitable, irreversible and irresistible, needs predictable policy to speed up and scale up," said Figueres.

Marie-José Nadeau, Chair of the World Energy Council, said, "We recognise the difficulty of bringing so many different positions together, but from all parts of the energy sector the message is clear - we need a clear signal."

"An energy transition is taking place in many countries, but in the boardrooms and in the energy ministries, leaders need the right framework to enable real world solutions that will unlock the finance and enable the technologies needed to be scaled," she added.

The World Energy Council's message goes on to support the inclusion of the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions track in the negotiations.