Director General, World Trade Organisation (WTO) Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has called for global cooperation to secure goods, materials, and technologies necessary for clean energy transition.
Speaking at a high-level roundtable during New York Climate Week, Okonjo-Iweala emphasised that supply chains must transcend nationalist interests as governments intensified decarbonisation efforts.
Her remarks were made at the Global Renewables Summit, hosted by the Global Renewables Alliance in partnership with Bloomberg Philanthropies, the COP28 and COP29 presidencies, International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) and the European Commission, among others.
Okonjo-Iweala’s call for action coincided with a major announcement by the Utilities for Net Zero Alliance (UNEZA), a coalition of 39 global utility and energy companies serving over 327 million customers.
The alliance pledged to invest more than $116 billion yearly in clean power generation and grid infrastructure as the investment would focus on scaling renewable energy portfolios by 2.6 times by 2030 and modernising grid systems, with 48 per cent of the funds directed towards transmission and distribution infrastructure.
In Nigeria, transmission infrastructure, where the government had in recent times borrowed over $7 billion from global lenders to improve, remained the weakest link in the industry. Despite the investment, Nigeria is still struggling with stabilising the grid network at a time that countries are looking to bring renewable on the grid.
The UNEZA partners, launched at COP28 under the guidance of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) and the UN Climate Change High-Level Champions, aim to accelerate global electrification and power system transformation.
The announcement forms part of ongoing efforts to meet global decarbonisation targets, signalling an increased demand for materials and equipment needed to expand the clean power system.
Alongside their investment commitment, UNEZA members published a high-level statement calling on policymakers to harmonise standards across regions, promote the free flow of supplies, establish long-term system planning, and innovate regulatory and business models.
The move, they argued, would alleviate supply chain constraints, providing certainty for supply chain companies to invest in the additional manufacturing capacity required for the transition.
Okonjo-Iweala emphasised the importance of removing barriers in global trade to support the energy transition, stating: “The supply of goods, materials, and technologies that underpin the energy transition must transcend nationalist interests as governments step up decarbonisation efforts.”