In a powerful call for international solidarity, Fatih Birol, IEA's executive director, urges countries to 'separate climate from geopolitics', as the IEA's newly released edition of the Net Zero Roadmap warns that we're running out of time to save our planet.
Hold the press; the International Energy Agency (IEA) just came out with the first substantial revision of its landmark Net Zero Roadmap. And guess what? The green tech explosion is the only reason we're still discussing keeping global warming within the 1.5-degree Celsius boundary.
Let's cut through the noise: This updated assessment emphasizes, in no uncertain terms, that further approvals of extensive oil, gas, and coal projects are incompatible with planetary health. Remember the IEA's 2021 Net Zero Pathway report? The one that outlined how we could realign the global energy juggernaut with the Paris Agreement? Well, the stakes just got higher.
Picture this: Russia's Ukraine invasion has skyrocketed gas prices since the first report. The post-pandemic recovery isn't uniform, creating inflation surges. Investments in fossil fuels stubbornly persist, but so does the burgeoning demand for clean energy tech. Oh, and our global emissions? Record-shattering, unfortunately.
So, what's the battle plan? To hit net zero by 2050, the IEA suggests a laundry list of audacious steps—triple the renewable power infrastructure by the dawn of the 2030s. Double down on energy efficiency. Get electric vehicles (EVs) and heat pumps out there like they're going out of fashion. Cut fossil fuel use by a quarter and emissions by over a third by 2030, and while you're at it, slash methane emissions by a whopping 75%.
Capital alert: You better believe that the clean energy sector needs an infusion of cash—a rise from today's $1.8 trillion to an eye-watering $4.5 trillion by the early 2030s. But this isn't just spending; it's an investment in a more sustainable future, offering net savings of $12 trillion between 2031 and 2050, excluding the auxiliary gains like climate resilience, public health, and energy stability.
Let's not forget—the IEA points out that funding the green transition should not encourage fossil fuel mania. Overinvestment in old-school energy could unleash volatile prices and supply excess, complicating the world's switch to renewables.
With the COP28 Climate Summit in Dubai around the corner, tensions are bubbling. Renewable energy targets for 2030 seem to be gaining traction, but phasing out fossil fuels is the elephant in the room. Governments worldwide, the UK included, continue to endorse new fossil fuel projects. It's as if the IEA's 2021 siren call against fossil fuel investments was ignored.
IEA executive director Fatih Birol said governments needed to set aside geopolitical tensions and come together to tackle climate change using the policy and investment levers available to them. "Keeping alive the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5C requires the world to come together quickly," he said. "The good news is we know what we need to do - and how to do it.
"We also have a very clear message: Strong international cooperation is crucial to success. Governments need to separate climate from geopolitics, given the scale of the challenge at hand."
On the innovation side, there's a silver lining. The reliance on unproven technologies for emissions reductions has slipped from nearly 50% in the 2021 report to about 35% this year. Emerging technologies in sectors like industry and shipping are showing great promise.
Crucially, the IEA also nudges developed nations to accelerate their net-zero timelines. This could give developing countries more room to adapt, all while pushing for a global investment of $45 billion per year to enable universal access to modern energy by 2030. Equality matters, even in the energy transition.
To top it off, if we fail to unite for this cause, brace yourselves for a rocky ride. The absence of international cooperation will only necessitate expensive yet unproven carbon-removal technologies, adding more uncertainty to our precarious situation.
Birol added that the upcoming COP28 Climate Summit offered a significant opportunity for governments to set an accelerated energy transition in motion.
"With international momentum building behind key global targets such as tripling renewable capacity and doubling energy efficiency by 2030, which would together lead to a stronger decline in fossil fuel demand this decade, the COP28 Climate Summit in Dubai is a vital opportunity to commit to stronger ambition and implementation in the remaining years of this critical decade," he said.
The report comes just days after the UK government announced a rollback of vital green policies, including a delay to the UK's phase-out date for petrol and diesel vehicles and the scrapping of energy efficiency standards for landlords. Meanwhile, Ministers are pressing ahead with more than 100 oil and gas licenses in the North Sea, in direct contradiction to the advice from the IEA and climate scientists.
Charlie Kronick, senior climate campaigner at Greenpeace UK, said the IEA's report provided further evidence of how "out of touch" Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was with climate and economic realities.
"The world's leading energy experts say we must move faster to get off dirty fossil fuels, but the prime minister is rolling back energy efficiency measures and putting up barriers to clean energy that would lower our bills, all while promising to 'max out' North Sea oil reserves," he said. "With the public, business leaders and world-leading energy experts all in agreement that climate rowbacks are a bad idea, it begs the question of whose advice Sunak is listening to. The only clear winners are the oil and gas companies and the ideologues on his own backbenches."