COP30 president André Corrêa do Lago has stated that investment in sustainable fuels is ‘essential’ to achieving net zero emissions targets.
Commenting at an Industry Dialogue on Sustainable Fuels, which took place as part of Climate Week in New York, Corrêa do Lago stated that a successful energy transition requires both electrification and low-carbon fuels in order to meet demand.
“Sustainable molecules are as important as sustainable electrons to achieve net zero goals,” he said. “Electrification and fuels, electrons and molecules, are largely complementary, and essential to the energy transition. We can not achieve our goals unless we have both.”
International cooperation
The event saw more than 50 companies present a letter to the COP30 presidency, calling for stronger international cooperation and policy frameworks to accelerate the use of sustainable fuels.
The letter highlighted some of the key bottlenecks that continue to hinder progress in scaling up the use of sustainable fuels, including high production costs, fragmented carbon accounting methodologies, lack of demand signals, and infrastructure gaps.
Corrêa do Lago pointed to recent findings shared by the International Energy Agency (IEA), which suggested that it is technically feasible to quadruple the use of sustainable fuels by 2035, provided there is sufficient collective effort and investment.
“To achieve this goal, we need to collaborate and work together to overcome existing barriers, such as lack of interoperability of carbon accounting methodologies, high costs, lack of clear demand signals, and, in some cases, need for investment in new infrastructure,” he commented.
Energy transition
Elsewhere, ambassador Maurício Lyrio, Secretary for Climate, Energy and Environment at Brazil’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, added that the urgency of the energy transition should not be underestimated.
“One of Brazil’s priorities at COP30 is the promotion of sustainable fuels as a solution for hard-to-abate sectors,” he said. “We invite all countries to join the initiatives Brazil is advancing on this matter, particularly the pledge to quadruple global production and use of sustainable fuels by 2035, to be adopted at the Belém summit.” Read more here.
