World Energy Council Says Extreme Weather Resulting From Climate Change Might Put World’s Energy Infrastructure At Risk
A report by the World Energy Council (WEC) reveals that extreme weather, which is a result of climate change, could put the energy infrastructure at risk. The report also reveals that new existing risks are causing greater threats to the energy division affecting the physical structures and the capital returns that are needed for the development of energy system to be more sustainable.
According to the report, people need to smarter rather than stronger in facing the effects of extreme weather and its effects on the energy sector.
"We are on a path where today's unlikely events will be tomorrow's reality," says WEC secretary-general Christoph Frei, as noted by The Guardian on Thursday. "We need to be smarter and imagine the unlikely. Traditional "fail-safe" systems, based on predicted events, no longer operate in isolation."
The report, which is titled "The road to resilience - managing and financing extreme weather risks," emphasizes that energy infrastructure should run in a "safe-fail" approach.
"New "safe-fail" systems, which recognize that unexpected weather events are occurring and that systems which go down need smarter, not stronger, solutions. This new approach is essential if we are to cope with new weather patterns and phenomena such as the more powerful El Niño currently experienced in many parts of the world," Frei says, as reported by Reuters on Wednesday.
The new approach would mean more secure and more reliable energy supplies, the report says. Also, the soft resilience approach "can contribute to the quicker restoration of services in case of disruptions."
The reports says, "Increasing the resilience of energy infrastructure to extreme weather events is not an option - it is a must."
Frei adds, "Our report has highlighted that current estimates for the cost of energy system adaptation do not fully account for the additional financing required to accommodate these new emerging risks. We need to ensure that resilience can turn these risks into rewards."
To handle and finance resilience over extreme weather risks, the report of WEC suggests some references such as: clearing the metrics that deliver robust systems which can recover in the event of a weather catastrophe, shifting from "fail-safe" to "safe-fail" approach that incorporates soft resilience solutions, new financial instruments and more.
WEC's report will be presented during the G20 meeting that will be held in Istanbul. Reports reveal that this report is the first in a series of reports which aims to tackle about the need to invest more and to change the system in order to eliminate the existing risks of climate change.
