The International Energy Agency stated on Wednesday that while low-emission sources will generate more than half of the world’s electricity before 2030, the global deployment of clean energy is “far from uniform.”
According to the IEA’s annual World Energy Outlook, demand for oil, gas, and coal is still expected to reach its peak by the end of the decade, possibly leading to a surplus of fossil fuels.
Fatih Birol, the IEA’s executive director, stated, “We have witnessed the Age of Coal and the Age of Oil in energy history.”
He stated, “We’re now moving at a rapid pace into the Age of Electricity, which will define the global energy system going forward and be increasingly based on clean sources of electricity.”
According to the report, 560 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy capacity will be added in 2023, indicating that clean energy “is entering the energy system at an unprecedented rate.”
According to the Paris-based agency, nearly twice as much money is being invested in clean energy projects each year as fossil fuel supplies.
“Low-emissions sources are set to generate more than half of the world’s electricity before 2030,” it stated. “Together with nuclear power, which is the subject of renewed interest in many countries,” it added.
“Growing momentum” notwithstanding, the International Energy Agency (IEA) stated that “the deployment of clean energy is far from uniform across technologies and countries.”
Industry, electric vehicles, air conditioning, and data centers connected to the rise of artificial intelligence are all contributing to the rising demand for electricity.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) stated that the world was “still a long way from a trajectory aligned” with its objective of becoming carbon neutral by 2050, despite the “growing momentum behind clean energy transitions.”
To achieve the Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, the net-zero emissions target is essential.
Azerbaijan will host the United Nations’ annual climate conference, COP29, from November 11 to November 22 in Baku. The IEA report comes a month before that.
Nations pledged to triple their renewable energy capacity by 2030 at COP28 in Dubai last year. Additionally, they pledged to move away from fossil fuels.
As costs for the majority of clean technologies decrease, the IEA predicted that renewable power generation capacity would rise from 4,250 GW today to nearly 10,000 GW in 2030.
It is “more than enough” to cover the growth in global electricity demand and “push coal-fired generation into decline,” despite falling short of the COP28 tripling goal.
China was responsible for 60% of the world’s new renewable capacity last year.
According to the report, the nation’s solar power production will surpass the total electricity demand of the United States at the moment by the beginning of the 2030s. However, “policy uncertainty and a high cost of capital are holding back clean energy projects” in numerous developing nations.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) warned that despite the fact that global carbon dioxide emissions are expected to reach their “imminently” peak, current policies still put the world on track for a rise in average temperatures of 2.4 degrees Celsius by 2100.
Dave Jones, global insights program director at Ember, an energy think tank, stated, “2024 showed that electricity demand is insatiable.”
“That implies worldwide coal age would fall less rapidly than recently anticipated. This indicates that there is still a long way to go before the world moves away from fossil fuels and reduces CO2 emissions in the energy sector,” he added.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) stated that fossil fuels covered two-thirds of the increase in global energy demand in 2017. Last year, energy-related CO2 emissions reached yet another record high.
“Sustainable development is making an energy overflow, yet this will possibly convert into a meaningful fall in CO2 outflows in the event that there is all the while a solid spotlight on involving energy as wastelessly as could be expected,” Jones said.
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