[Asia Future Business Forum] Ali Izadi "Insufficient Speed of Energy Transition"

'2022 Asia Future Business Forum' Lecture
'Net-Zero Transition: From Paris to Glasgow and Beyond' Lecture

Ali Izadi, Head of APAC Research at Bloomberg New Energy Finance, is giving a lecture at the '2022 Asia Future Business Forum' hosted by Asia Economy on the 27th at the Westin Chosun Hotel in Jung-gu, Seoul. Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunseok Yoo] "Many countries, including South Korea, have ambitiously set targets to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. The problem is that the current pace of transition is far from sufficient."

Ali Izadi, Head of APAC Research at Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF), said this on the 27th at the 10th 2022 Asia Future Business Forum held at the Westin Chosun Hotel in Seoul.

Izadi delivered a lecture titled "Net-Zero Transition: From Paris to Glasgow and Beyond."

He stated, "The Glasgow Climate Pact, which emerged from the UN Climate Change Conference in November, reaffirmed the main goal of the Paris Agreement to limit global warming to below 2°C compared to pre-industrial levels. The problem is that the global average surface temperature has already risen by 1.1°C compared to pre-industrial levels."

In particular, he evaluated that significant investments have been made in the power sector. Over the past 50 years, investments have been made in renewable energy fields such as solar and wind power. He assessed, "Everything is driven by economic logic, and as the prices of solar modules and wind turbines have fallen, their quality has also improved."

However, since solar and wind power are not always available, he emphasized the need for other renewable energy sources. He expressed hope that hydrogen could be an alternative. Currently, hydrogen is broadly classified into three types based on the amount of greenhouse gases emitted during production: green hydrogen, blue hydrogen, and gray hydrogen. Ali Izadi explained, "Currently, gray hydrogen is the cheapest," but added, "By 2030, green hydrogen is expected to become competitive."

He particularly forecasted that the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix by 2050 will vary depending on the scale of energy investments. Under an optimal investment scenario, the share of oil energy, which accounted for 42% globally in 2019, is expected to decrease to 7% by 2050, while electricity is projected to increase from 19% to 49%. Additionally, hydrogen energy is expected to account for 22%.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.