24 January 2024

Keynote speech by Commissioner McGuinness at the EU Sustainable Investment Summit 2024

"...by 2050, our energy should be based on renewables using advanced technology – hydropower, bioenergy, wind and solar. A consistent supply of energy because that will be down to storage, energy storage and hi-tech batteries...."

The country I know best, many of you may have heard – we've experienced near gale-force winds, but two storms in quick succession in the last few days.

Some may have seen the aircrafts that couldn't take off or even more frighteningly, the aircrafts that couldn't actually land and had to revert to the home base.

And I tell you this story because this is not normal from the green isle of Ireland.

But we are seeing more and more storms. We are seeing more and more extreme patterns of weather that are impacting in the way I've just described.

As I speak, many households and businesses have no power and will remain without power for some days.

So the impacts of climate on citizens, on businesses, is now very real and people are more and more concerned about it.

So it gives a huge urgency to our conversations today.

And I'm really happy to speak before a very important panel which will follow on innovation as a driver of the climate transition.

Because I think we all know in this room that without innovation and new technologies or breakthrough technologies, we will not achieve our climate goals.

But I want to take a quick look as to what 2050 needs to bring to us and how things will be in 2050.

And then a word too about how we fund it, about the money part of the equation.

Now a big admission here: I'm very unlikely to be around to see how things will turn out in 2050, when we should meet our climate goals.

I'm not going to ask those in the audience who feel they will be with me on that journey, wherever that takes us!

But maybe it makes it more important for those of us who will not be around to do the best and the most that we can while we are.

Because we're talking about dealing with issues for the next generation of children that are not born yet, to make the world a much better, safer place.

And also a more sustainable place, a better place to live, work and play.

So by 2050, our energy should be based on renewables using advanced technology – hydropower, bioenergy, wind and solar.

A consistent supply of energy because that will be down to storage, energy storage and hi-tech batteries.

Smart grids – digital technologies to help coordinate supply and demand.

Our homes will be more efficient, more comfortable.

We'll have retrofitting in place and new builds will be about using as much recycled insulation material as possible, with solar panels on the roof just part and parcel of what should be.

And also rain harvesting will be part of the equation as well, because water will be a resource that we will need to cherish.

Travel will be very different.

Yes, we will still walk and hopefully take a bike.

But I come from a generation where bikes were regarded as things that you had when you were poor enough to have a bike....

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