Dr. Faith Birol, Executive Director of the IEA (International Energy Agency), published an important commentary with a clear message to the governments: Put clean energy at the heart of stimulus plans to counter the coronavirus crisis.
This commentary makes a concise analysis on the impacts of the coronavirus crisis, the current announcements made by governments, already thinking ahead about how to turn this crisis into an opportunity: “Governments are drawing up stimulus plans in an effort to counter the economic damage from the coronavirus. These stimulus packages offer an excellent opportunity to ensure that the essential task of building a secure and sustainable energy future doesn’t get lost amid the flurry of immediate priorities.”
The recommendations include boosting clean energy technologies and pursuing energy efficiency policies.
An Energy Efficiency First perspective to these recommendations would add the need to better integrate energy efficiency, renewable energy technologies and energy infrastructures, looking at where the investments should happen first to reach long term goals, to avoid lock-in effects and optimize the investments from a society’s point of view.
READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE.