LESC at COP24: Accelerating Action to a Low-Carbon Future

December 10, 2018
SDG Pavilion (E34), Katowice, Poland

This year’s LESC features distinguished panelists from government, academia, business, and civil society who will address the themes of energy and land use. Spotlight presentations will facilitate rich dialogue on what is still needed and how public-private partnerships can support the common objectives between nations, cities, business, and academia. The outcomes of this event will be submitted to the Marrakech Partnership for Global Climate Action.

The IPCC's Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C highlights that limiting warming to 1.5°C remains possible, but only if we urgently and rapidly transform all systems at an unprecedented scale. Net CO2 emissions need to be zero in 2050. In pursuit of this target, the energy system must transition away from fossil fuels – currently responsible for over 80% of primary energy demand – toward increasing shares of zero-carbon energy sources in all sectors. Given the scale of the challenge, all low-carbon solutions will be needed in this transformation. This session will present the decarbonization efforts already taking place in the power sector, and showcase how this can decarbonize the transport and buildings sector through electrification.

Registration: No registration is required. This event is open to all accredited attendees of COP24.

Agenda

10 Dec 3:30PM
Welcome Keynotes and setting the scene
Speaker(s):

Dr. Han Huang, Vice President, Economic & Technology Research Institute, GEIDCO
Jeffrey Sachs, Director, UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (Video conference)

10 Dec 3:50PM
Launch of WBCSD report: “New Energy Solutions for 1.5°C”
Speaker(s):

Maria Mendiluce, Managing Director, WBCSD

10 Dec 4:00PM
The role of decarbonized electricity in decarbonizing end use sectors

The decarbonization of the power sector will be a crucial enabler to the transition to low-carbon transport, buildings, and industry sectors via the increasing electrification of energy-end uses. The primary levers to decarbonizing the power sector are phasing out unabated fossil fuel-based generation and expanding zero-carbon generation. Scaling up of renewable-based electricity (RE) is critical, and the share of generation from variable renewable technologies in particular - solar and wind - must grow rapidly.

Moderator(s):

Elena Crete, Program Manager, UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network

Speaker(s):

Carlos Sallé, Vice-President of Energy Policies and Climate Change, Iberdrola
Pascal Chalvon-Demersay, Chief Sustainability and Energy Officer, Solvay
Xiaodong Wang, Senior Energy Specialist, The World Bank

10 Dec 4:45PM
Transport: electrification of passenger transport and key enablers

Electrification of passenger mobility via the increasing deployment of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) will play an important role in reducing CO2 emissions from the transport sector. In addition to decarbonization targets, the electrification of passenger mobility in urban settings is driven by air quality concerns. The number of battery electric vehicles on the road have grown rapidly in 2018. The rapid growth in BEVs can be attributed to a large fall in battery prices combined with purchase incentives from governments. In addition, battery capacity improvements and infrastructure developments have also reduced range anxiety in drivers.

With growth in BEVs, smart charging will be necessary to manage the impact of BEVs on the power system, while also enabling them to play a complementary role in the energy transition by providing flexibility services to the grid. Through smart charging, the timing of BEV charging can be optimized to ensure a reasonable balance between power supply and demand, which reduces the need for additional generation capacity, increases the grid asset use factor and reduces the curtailment of renewable generation. Demand-side management via smart charging can be facilitated by dynamic tariffs such as time-of-use or real-time pricing, which will incentivize consumers to charge BEVs when prices are low. Furthermore, BEVs represent storage capacity that could be used to provide ancillary services to the power grid via vehicle-to-grid (V2G) solutions.

Moderator(s):

Rasmus Valanko, Director, Climate & Energy, WBCSD

Speaker(s):

Anirban Ghosh, CSO, Mahindra
Nicola Tagliafierro, Head of Sustainabile Product Development, Enel X
Yeom Tae-young, Mayor of Suwon, Republic of Korea, on behalf of ICLEI´s Ecomobility Alliance

10 Dec 5:30PM
Buildings: electrification of buildings, digitalization, and smart cities

In the long-term, all buildings must be net zero-emissions buildings; the technologies needed to achieve this goal are available today. One of the key levers to decarbonizing the buildings sector is the electrification of space and water heating, which currently account for the majority of direct CO2 emissions from the sector. Electricity demand from the buildings sector will grow as a result of increasing electrification rates, and economic and population growth. To minimize load on the grid, electric devices across all end uses must be highly energy efficient.

The digitalization of household devices is one way to drive efficiency improvements. For example, digitalization increases the opportunities for device optimization by increasing awareness of energy consumption in real-time; and smart thermostats can use machine learning to automatically adjust room temperature in response to occupant behavior and input such as weather forecasts. In addition to efficiency improvements, demand response in the buildings sector enabled by digitalization will be important to managing load on the electricity system.

Moderator(s):

Wolfgang Teubner, Regional Director, ICLEI Europe

Speaker(s):

Gilles Vermot Desroches, CSO, Schneider Electric
Leszek Drogos, Director of Infrastructure Department, City of Warsaw, Poland
Meg Argyriou, Head of International Programs, ClimateWorks Australia

10 Dec 6:15PM
Concluding Remarks
Speaker(s):

Bertrand Piccard, Co Founder and Chairman, Solar Impulse

Speakers