The UN Climate Conference in Dubai is a great event. About 90,000 participants from 200 countries are participating in the conference. At the political level, it is nothing less than saving the global climate and the question of whether coal, oil and gas can be eliminated, or whether emissions from burning fossil fuels should only be reduced. There is heated debate about these questions.
Sharma: “We have to accelerate the pace of work”
But it’s also about technology and economics. As with a major trade show, there are a whole series of informational events. Stefan Sharma, CEO of Burgenland Energy, is in Dubai because of new technologies in renewable energy. Thanks to its large wind farms and photovoltaic systems, Burgenland Energie is one of the leaders in green electricity production in Austria. Burgenland Energie and Burgenland also want to be climate neutral by 2030. According to Sharma, we are a leader in the energy sector, but as demonstrated at the World Climate Conference, we will have to pick up the pace in order to maintain this role.
Stefan Sharma in conversation with Hannes Auer
Sharma is optimistic about climate neutrality
Burgenland Energie’s goal is to phase out fossil fuels. Currently, 40 percent of Burgenland’s energy needs are covered by oil and gas – especially in the heating and mobility sectors. “It is precisely these areas that we are now addressing systematically as a company in order to be climate neutral by 2030,” says Sharma.
Asked why he was optimistic that the goal of reducing global warming to 1.5 degrees could be achieved, Sharma said: “I am optimistic because we have everything in our hands. On the one hand, we have the energy resources of wind and sun, which we also depend on in Burgenland and which other countries depend on.” Also. On the other hand, we must not forget that we now have technologies to use wind and sun and then make them storable. Wind, sun, storage and hydrogen are the four areas, as we saw here at the World Climate Conference, that countries are relying on, and the pace at which this change is happening “Right now it’s huge. You can’t even imagine the amount of investment here, the amount of innovation that’s happening here. So I’m very confident that we will achieve this necessary change together,” Sharma said in the Burgenland-Hout interview with Hannes Auer.
Sharma: Do not underestimate oil and gas countries
According to Sharma, one should not underestimate the importance of oil and gas countries. “The impression I get here is that these countries in particular are moving at a very high pace in expanding renewable energies and innovations in green technologies. This means that we will have to make sure that we can keep up with this pace. Because these countries have the capital to do this.” the shift”.
