Lebanon and the Imperatives of the Climate Change Conference

The convening of the COP28 United Nations Climate Change Conference at Expo City Dubai in the United Arab Emirates must serve as an occasion for Lebanon to turn its attention to the issue of electricity generation and to work towards ensuring that its primary sources come from clean and renewable energy, increasingly year after year. The conference must also serve as a catalyst for Lebanon to work on curbing pollution resulting from emissions caused by transport and electricity generation plants, whether from private generators or from the thermal plants belonging to Electricité du Liban. While heavy industries in industrialised countries cause polluting emissions, Lebanese industries are characterised by the fact that most of them are light industries that do not directly produce significant emissions. However, the problem lies in the electrical power that these industries require and that constitutes the primary operating power of these factories, which makes the emissions resulting from generating electricity using fuel oil-powered generators the source of emissions, rather than industry itself. At a time when emissions from Electricité du Liban plants have declined due to the drop in their electricity production, private generators have increased their operating hours, increasing the volume of emissions and spreading pollution across the entirety of Lebanon at the same time. While the National Energy Efficiency Action Plan (NEEAP), prepared by the Ministry of Energy in 2010, envisaged ways to improve energy efficiency and expand clean and renewable energy sources so that the share of primary energy consumption covered by solar, wind, bioenergy and hydropower would reach 12% in 2020 and rise to 30% by 2030, Lebanon failed to fulfil its pledges and its commitment to the requirements of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, and the contribution of clean and renewable energy remained at minimal levels. Despite the ambitious plan, the share of renewable energy in electricity consumed in 2014 did not exceed 4%, or a total of 400 megawatts of electrical power, distributed among hydropower at 293 megawatts, bioenergy at 7 megawatts (the Naameh landfill) and zero megawatts from wind power. Meanwhile, the share of power generated from solar energy between 2012 and 2020 was limited to producing 100 megawatt-hours of electricity. Lebanon's capacity to generate electricity from solar energy rose only between 2020 and 2021 with the addition of 100 megawatts, equivalent to the capacity installed over the preceding ten years, as a result of the financial and economic crisis that swept Lebanon and Electricité du Liban's announcement on 23 September 2021 of a nationwide power blackout after its fuel stocks were completely depleted. Lebanese citizens had to wait until the beginning of the current year, 2023, for Electricité du Liban to resume supplying them with 4 hours of electricity, following the caretaker government's approval of the Ministry of Energy's plan. As for Lebanon's solar electricity generation, it reached approximately 750 megawatts at the end of 2022, and this output is expected to double to surpass the threshold of 1,500 megawatts by the end of the current year, 2023. With this volume of production, electricity generated using sunlight covers nearly 50% of Lebanon's total electricity needs, helping to reduce reliance on thermal power and its environmentally polluting emissions, while also eliminating the need for new thermal plants. The increase in utilised solar energy capacity has led to a decline in Lebanon's total demand for electrical power, which today does not exceed 1,700 megawatts. Lebanon previously needed 1,000 megawatts to bridge the gap between its total electricity needs, which stood at 3,200 megawatts before the economic crisis, and the capacity of Electricité du Liban's thermal and hydroelectric plants, which amounts to roughly 2,200 megawatt-hours and which have never operated at full capacity to meet Lebanon's energy needs. At a time when the Zahrani and Deir Ammar plants could have been operated on low-emission natural gas rather than fuel oil alone, Lebanon's use of Arab gas was limited to operating the Deir Ammar plant to generate electricity in 2009, following the completion of the Beddawi link of the Arab Gas Pipeline; however, the operation lasted for only a few months due to financial, geopolitical and technical considerations that this is not the appropriate place to mention. Today, Lebanon looks forward to the moment it begins extracting oil and gas from the seabed of its territorial waters, thereby securing its energy supplies, reducing its exorbitant oil bill and also cutting emissions. Successive governments have also neglected hydroelectric plants until their output fell to less than half, while others ceased operating altogether (the Hrash plant and the Richmaya plant, for example, while the output of others dropped to less than half), hindering the achievement of sustainable electricity solutions. All that is happening today is that the Richmaya plant is being rehabilitated through a grant from USAID, whereas the remaining plants stay as they are amid the deficit afflicting state finances and the failure of those in charge to secure suitable sources of funding. While the Ministry of Energy's plan was limited to increasing electricity supply hours to 6 hours instead of four starting from the beginning of last October, the supply is being provided without announcing a specific schedule for supply hours and their geographical distribution. It is of paramount importance to press ahead with implementing the plan to increase electricity supply, given the deteriorating economic conditions, the eroded purchasing power of military and civilian public sector employees, and the inability of the overwhelming majority of them to afford suitable alternatives, whether in terms of drawing on solar energy or relying on private generators. It is worth noting that generating electricity from bioenergy sources contributes to solving the waste crisis, a crisis that has cost the public treasury vast sums while leaving the problem unresolved, whereas the hundreds of tonnes of waste that Lebanon produces daily could have been used to generate electricity, along the lines of what is taking place at the Naameh landfill. Those running the country, however, preferred to leave the waste crisis unresolved and keep the electricity crisis as it is, because such solutions stand in the way of commissions from waste contracting, fuel oil deals and the like. As for the trend among Lebanese towards expanding the use of solar energy to generate electricity, it must not deter Electricité du Liban from continuing to produce electricity and provide it at carefully considered rates that ensure the sustainability of production and do not burden bill-paying consumers with the cost of payment evaders. What is needed is to work on formulating a national strategy for electricity supply based on a set of pillars and aimed at ensuring the sustainability of production and supply, through:

- Rehabilitating and upgrading hydroelectric plants and working to establish new hydroelectric plants. - Encouraging the use of clean and renewable energy from solar, wind and bioenergy sources. - Reducing energy consumption in public administrations and institutions and rationalising consumption by citizens. - Encouraging producers to supply surplus renewable energy to the public grid at appropriate prices. - Urging consumers to raise the efficiency of electricity use in buildings and equipment. - Coordinating the various sources of electrical power and harnessing them in an integrated manner. Implementing this strategy requires adopting practical measures, particularly those relating to the integration of electricity generation sources and the efficiency of their use, whether Electricité du Liban's thermal and hydroelectric plants, the private generators spread across cities and towns throughout Lebanon, or projects producing renewable energy from solar, wind and bioenergy sources. The plan must treat all energy sources as national capacities, which requires harmonising them to optimise their use and raise their productivity. In light of the foregoing, resolving Lebanon's financial and economic crisis amid the political and security crises threatening Lebanon has become difficult, not to say impossible. Yet one must not surrender to this reality, and efforts must be made to overcome it, since decoupling these crises makes it easier to resolve and surmount them. The electricity crisis is one such crisis whose resolution could help advance steps towards solving the remaining crises, particularly the financial crisis through savings and ending waste, and resolving the economic crisis by encouraging investment.

Translated from Arabic with AI. Read it in Arabic