On Monday’s broadcast of CNN International’s “The Brief,” E.U. Commissioner for Climate, Net Zero, and Clean Growth Wopke Hoekstra said that solar energy will eventually be one of or the cheapest energy options, but “We are late with tackling climate change, so the damage has already, to a large extent, occurred and is happening every single day. So, we are moving in the right direction, but we do actually need to walk faster to make sure we truly tackle this.”
Host Jim Sciutto asked, “I wonder if it’s possible, can the economics of renewable energy come to the rescue to some degree? In other words, has the price of renewables come down sufficiently? Has the efficiency, for instance, of electric vehicles advanced sufficiently to make it such that it’s just good business, right? Even for a country like the U.S., regardless of what the politics are here, that you have to move forward if you want to compete?”
Hoekstra responded, “Absolutely. And if you would, for example, look at the cost curve of solar, that is absolutely spectacular. That has — the costs have gone down by 90, 95%, if you would compare that to the beginning of this century, and it is going down ever further. So, [that] will be over, time the cheapest or one of the cheapest solutions available, and that is fantastic news for businesses and citizens alike. The problem is that we’re late at the party. We are late with tackling climate change, so the damage has already, to a large extent, occurred and is happening every single day. So, we are moving in the right direction, but we do actually need to walk faster to make sure we truly tackle this. And that is why it is so hugely important that, in the present day, we make the most of these type[s] of climate negotiations.”
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