Q1 President von der Leyen, you championed the COP28 agreement to triple renewable energy access last year. Why is this so important? And what steps has the European Commission taken over the last 12 months to achieve this very ambitious goal?
President von der Leyen: Thank you, first of all, for having me tonight and allowing me to address you here and discuss these important topics. If we look at climate change and our common fight against climate change and to protect nature, there is one core subject and that is energy: How to get rid of fossil fuels and move towards clean renewable energy. And therefore, before we had the COP28 in Dubai, a few likeminded partners teamed up and we said: 'We need to not only have the nationally determined targets, as countries, but we also need to have a global target on renewables and how to increase the amount of renewables'. And with that, the idea was born to triple renewables until 2030. And there are three very good reasons for that. If you look at it, tripling renewables globally until 2030 would mean a cut of 10 billion tonnes of CO2 emissions until 2030. So it would be a huge step forward. But there is a second element and that is that renewables are not only clean, when emissions are concerned, but they are also cheap – that is crucial for affordable energy – and they are homegrown. So for many of them, you can have them at home: they create good jobs at home. So there are lots of good economic arguments for it. The third element is, we set a target because only what gets measured gets done. We know that. So we will track from now on. And we know that the business sector likes these goals because then they know that if we commit to them globally, then they know exactly the direction of travel. And as you are asking: What are the European Commission, the European Union doing for it? What we immediately did is raise our target too by 2030. We are on track. We have now more electricity from renewables than from fossil fuels, that is a big step forward. And of course, we are increasing our investment in the rest of the world for infrastructure creating – building infrastructure for renewables, specifically in Africa, but we are going to speak about this in a little while. So many good reasons to make tripling the renewables by 2030 our global goal.
Q2 Your other really exciting moment is that you just won the re-election, and you are in the first year of your second mandate as President of the European Commission. Can you share with us how you will use this next year in partnership with South Africa to advance this hugely ambitious agenda?
President von der Leyen: As you know, we have the European Green Deal and we will stay on track to move forward. But if we want to be successful in fighting climate change and protecting nature, we have to think globally. And therefore, the goal of tripling renewables by 2030 is so important. And I thank you, Cyril, for describing the situation in Africa because we will only be successful if we leave no continent behind, and if the transition in Africa is a just one. Africa has, as you said, all the resources necessary, in abundance: sun and wind, and hydropower, etcetera. Africa has 60% of the best solar resources worldwide, but only 3% of the global investments in infrastructure for renewables go to Africa. And with that the task is clear: We have to step up. I called my friend Cyril Ramaphosa to ask: 'Should we not join forces and launch a campaign during the next year, beginning here in Rio de Janeiro, ending next year with you having the Presidency of G20 in South Africa, asking the governments of this world, but also the international organisations and the private sector for example, to scale up renewables for Africa and to pledge?' And, I think, we should launch this campaign tonight. It is the perfect time I would say, and it is a perfect team, each of us, really to make it happen: scale up renewables for Africa.
