Miguel Stilwell, CEO of EDP, spoke on Wednesday at the Climate Ambition Summit in New York, convened by the Secretary General of the United Nations, António Guterres, in December last year, representing Portugal at the event. The CEO spoke about the challenges associated with the transition to renewable energy, but emphasized that it is necessary to involve all stakeholders for this change to happen.
“One thing that is very clear to us is that scientists are telling us that we need to accelerate the path to zero emissions, and that the sustainable energy sector is key to this transformation,” he said.
Miguel Stilwell recalled that renewable energy, in addition to having no emissions, is very cheap today. “The price of solar energy has fallen by 95% in the last ten years, as has wind energy, so this is no longer a problem. Renewable energy is perfectly competitive with other energy sources.”
The businessman believes that this type of energy will ensure energy independence and make access more democratic in several countries around the world, but he also listed the challenges.
Increasing the scale of renewable energy is one of the biggest challenges facing the sector, according to the businessman. Licensing issues and negative reactions from local communities are the issues Miguel Stilwell cites as the difficulty in increasing the magnitude of these energies in the short term.
EDP’s CEO believes that clear and consistent regulations are absolutely essential. “Investors demand stable and predictable regulations to make investment decisions. This is a prerequisite for this to happen. Great progress has been made around the world, but we still see a lot of misinformation and fragmentation, and I think this needs to be addressed.”
The CEO recalled that 85% of the energy produced by EDP comes from renewable sources, while 15 years ago this figure was only 20%. “We have already started on this path, but there is still a lot to do. We plan to invest 25%.” billion euros over the next four years to continue on this path.”
Miguel Stilwell argued that individual plans are not enough and that it is necessary to involve all stakeholders in the path to zero emissions, including regulators, political decision makers and local communities.
Source: DN
