Ireland takes account of its global climate impacts
RWE's Gwynt y Mor wind farm, located eight miles offshore in Liverpool Bay, off the coast of North Wales. The International Energy Agency has said Russian fossil fuel exports will never return to 2021 levels in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine, as the world turns to cleaner energy.
No two countries shape their policy priorities and approach clean energy transitions in precisely the same way. The stage they are at in terms of economic and energy development has an impact. So too do the resource endowments they have.
This topic is considered by the International Energy Agency (IEA) in its World Energy Outlook 2024 report. Published in October, it illustrates how comparing key metrics across regions highlights important differences, by providing the following thought-provoking example: While car ownership is twice as high in the European Union as it is in Eurasia, the latter has twice the per capita CO2 emissions of the former. The report is, as always, an engaging read.
