IEA’s Clarion Call To Scrap Fossil Fuel Projects Could Mean A Faster Achievement Of Net Zero

The IEA predicted a “sharp decline in fossil fuel demand” in the next three decades as well as a 2040 deadline for the global energy sector to achieve carbon neutrality. It called for a rapid and vast ramping-up of renewable energy investment and capacity, which bring gains in development, wealth, and human health. 

IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said the road map outlined in the report showed that the path to global net-zero by 2050 was “narrow but still achievable”. 

“The scale and speed of the efforts demanded by this critical and formidable goal – our best chance of tackling climate change and limiting global warming to 1.5C – make this perhaps the greatest challenge humankind has ever faced,” he said. 

Built using its industry network and energy modeling tools, the IEA’s plan lays out more than 400 milestones on the path to net-zero by mid-century. These projects include “no new oil and gas fields approved for development.” 

It predicts “a sharp decline in fossil fuel demand, meaning that the focus for oil and gas producers switches entirely to output – and emissions reductions – from the operation of existing assets”. 

The plan also includes energy efficiency that would need to improve 4 percent annually this decade – approximately three times faster than the current trajectory. With annual additions of solar and wind power reaching 630 and 390 gigawatts respectively by 2030, the IEA said that investment in renewables could put global GDP 4% higher by 2050 than it would be based on current trends. 

By 2050, it said, renewables capacity and greater efficiency would see global energy demand drop about 8% compared with today, even as two billion more people gained access to electricity. 

The investment totaling approximately $40bn a year – about 1% of current energy sector investment – is projected to hook hundreds of millions up to the global grid. 

The IEA said that clean energy and access to clean cooking solutions could cut the number of premature deaths by 2.5 million a year by 2050. Overall, fossil fuels are set to account for only about a fifth of the energy supply by 2050, down from almost four-fifths currently, the report showed. 

Gas use is likely to increase significantly in the stated pledges pathway, as is nuclear. It also said that all inefficient coal power plants needed to close by 2030 in order to achieve net zero by 2050. 

While most of the global CO2 reductions until 2030 in the net-zero pathway come from “technologies available today”, the IEA said that about half of reductions by 2050 would be provided by “technologies that are currently only in demonstration or prototype phase”. 

These include direct air capture and storage of CO2 from the atmosphere, which it said could be “particularly impactful”.