Climate change: Move to cleaner energy 'far too slow'
The International Energy Agency concluded that many of the solutions to avoiding a 1.5°C rise in global temperatures are cost-effective.
The transition to cleaner energy is accelerating but remains far too slow if net-zero carbon targets are to be met by 2050.
That is according to the International Energy Agency's (IEA) World Energy Outlook 2021, in which it urged world leaders to use the upcoming COP26 event in Glasgow to commit to "an unmistakable signal of ambition and action from governments" on the climate crisis.
Net-zero describes the balance between the number of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere compared to what is removed through decarbonisation processes. COP26 is a United Nations climate change conference in which countries from all over the world will discuss progress in relation to the climate crisis.
"A new energy economy is emerging around the world as solar, wind, electric vehicles and other low-carbon technologies flourish. But as the pivotal moment of COP26 approaches, the IEA’s new World Energy Outlook makes it clear that this clean energy progress is still far too slow to put global emissions into sustained decline towards net-zero," the IEA said.
As the pivotal moment of #COP26 approaches, the @IEA is warning that the crucial and inevitable transition to clean energy is happening, but is still far too slow to keep the world safe from the worst impacts of global heating. #WEO21 https://t.co/xISuvoRO23
— UN Climate Change (@UNFCCC) October 13, 2021
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The agency warned that its analysis of the current picture "delivers stark warnings about the direction in which today’s policy settings are taking the world", but also "clear-headed" steps needed to limit global warming to 1.5°C and avoiding the worst effects of climate change.
It said that even as solar and wind go from "strength to strength", global consumption of coal has still grown strongly in 2021, pushing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions towards their second-largest annual increase in history.
In its executive summary, the IEA said: "At the moment, however, every data point showing the speed of change in energy can be countered by another showing the stubbornness of the status quo.
"The rapid but uneven economic recovery from last year’s Covid-induced recession is putting major strains on parts of today’s energy system, sparking sharp price rises in natural gas, coal and electricity markets."
Public spending on sustainable energy in economic recovery packages has only mobilised around one-third of the investment required to jolt the energy system, it warned, with the largest shortfall in developing economies as they battle the current health crisis.
The current global picture is a long way off the "narrow but achievable roadmap to a 1.5°C stabilisation in rising global temperatures", it said.
Pressures on the energy system are not going to relent in the coming decades, the report said.
"The energy sector is responsible for almost three-quarters of the emissions that have already pushed global average temperatures 1.1°C higher since the pre-industrial age, with visible impacts on weather and climate extremes. The energy sector has to be at the heart of the solution to climate change."
Rising incomes are pushing up demand for energy services, and today's energy system is not capable of meeting these challenges, the analysis found. "A low emissions revolution is long overdue," it said.
Despite the narrow path to avoiding 1.5°C, many of the solutions are cost-effective, the IEA concluded.
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