The Asian Development Bank said in a recent blog post that it expects the high prices of energy to be for the short term, but it still urged countries to fast track the shift to clean energy in order to avoid further repercussions of worsening climate change.
ADB principal energy specialist Kelly Hewitt warned that economies in Asia-Pacific, including the Philippines, could see their electricity bills jump by 27 percent in three years if the region’s energy supply mix remains unchanged.
Global energy prices have been elevated since the start of the year due to recovering demand from the pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Additionally, natural gas, the world’s low-carbon transition fuel, is currently constrained by lack of sufficient storage and transportation. There is also a shortage of crude oil and refineries that feed transportation and industrial technologies throughout the world.
Amid the current energy crisis, the Manila-based multilateral lender emphasized that now is the time for cutting-edge and alternative energy that is energy efficient, conservation measures and renewable technologies. Increased focus on the low-carbon transition and a no-carbon future is the best insurance against future energy crises and a repeat of the currently dire situation.
“The world continued to rely on fossil fuel production to maintain and grow economies. Over five decades later, we now have another energy crisis. It’s important that we observe past global lessons learned and act more aggressively to change regional and global trajectories to a no-carbon future,” Hewitt said.
She added that although we have survived previous global energy crises and price increases, the best way forward is through clean energy innovation and low-carbon pathways to a no-carbon future.
Let us learn the difficult lessons from this global energy crisis and price crunch by moving with more urgency towards the necessary transition to a future that is no longer dependent on fossil fuels for energy.
May this energy crisis be the last one humanity has to survive.*
