Tackling Barriers to Climate Change Goals Worldwide

During Climate Week in New York, Jackson Ewing will explore how low- and middle-income countries can overcome challenges to clean energy transitions

Jackson Ewing speaking at a table
Jackson Ewing, director of energy and climate policy at the Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability

To achieve climate change goals worldwide, low- and middle-income countries that rely on non-renewable energy sources need financing to make the transition. However, today the amount of money required to finance these projects simply isn’t flowing into the countries where fossil fuel use remains high.

There are many reasons – from the costs of creating necessary new energy grid infrastructure to re-training an existing workforce. Jackson Ewing, director of energy and climate policy at the Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability, focuses on exploring ways to overcome these and other challenges.

Ewing has worked in more than 20 countries and collaborates closely with those in government, the private sector, society and international organizations. He will be moderating a panel during Climate Week in New York (Sept. 22-29) titled “How Can Energy Transitions Balance Growth, Decarbonization, and Human Development?”

The intensification of global warming, coupled with the need to create clean energy has many middle- and low-income countries struggling with how to meet those demands. It’s particularly difficult when the private sector is hesitant to fund such projects because of a fear of losing their investments.

“The primary barrier that we hear from private sector companies or private financiers, and asset holders like pension funds, is that the risk is too high. They say they cannot invest in many of these markets because they do not fulfill the different risk criteria that they have to meet for projects to move forward. That can be because of currency value risk or because of political risk,” says Ewing.

“We’re agnostic from an interest standpoint, and that’s an important role for a knowledge institution to play. We’re not just an impartial mediator, we also have real knowledge of the sector, so we can facilitate sophisticated dialogues.”

Jackson Ewing

The race to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 likely will need an annual global investment in the energy sector ranging from US$5 trillion to more than US$7 trillion. However, less than US$2 trillion is being invested each year, according to a report by Deloitte.

Financers of these projects need to know they will see a return on their investment and that’s not easy to calculate.

“Some would suggest that the private sector inflates those risk calculations in some cases, not for nefarious purposes, but because of entrenched ways of doing business in more familiar markets, and a lack of boots on the ground in a given location to know exactly what’s going on there,” Ewing says.

Also, for many underdeveloped countries, clean energy isn’t a priority. Economic growth is.

“The last thing they want to hear is wealthy Western countries say that you need to build new, cleaner energy systems for the sake of global climate change if it impedes their immediate development needs,” Ewing says. “If (Westerners) just come in prioritizing decarbonization, (they) very much run the risk of not being received favorably or as a legitimate, useful actor in that country in question, and justifiably so.”

Ewing says Duke’s involvement in Climate Week “provides thought leadership, combined with a degree of neutrality and a level playing field, in these contentious issues.”

He added, “We’re agnostic from an interest standpoint, and that’s an important role for a knowledge institution to play. We’re not just an impartial mediator, we also have real knowledge of the sector, so we can facilitate sophisticated dialogues.”

Ewing, who has been attending Climate Week events for the last decade, will take several students with him. “This will be a good opportunity for them to build their own networks, their own knowledge, their own capacities,” he says.

The day before the panel discussion, Ewing will host a roundtable that brings together about two dozen capital providers. During the past few months, he’s been interviewing them about the challenges they face in providing finance for energy transitions to address climate change. At the roundtable, they will discuss ways to move forward.

The panel will take place on Sept. 26 from 1:25 to 2:10 p.m. at the Nest Climate Campus Main Stage, Javits Center. Panelists include Stefano Marguccio (Sustainable Energy for All) and Alix Peterson Zwane (James E. Rogers Energy Access Project, Duke University).