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The world is set to make abundant energy by the second half of the decade as the production of batteries and solar panels surges—but there will also be an excess of planet-warming fossil fuels, a report released Wednesday by the International Energy Agency said.
The intergovernmental organization with 31 member companies provides policy recommendations, analysis and data on the global energy sector, but has come under fire in recent years for perceived political bias.
“We’re now moving at speed into the Age of Electricity,” IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said in a press statement marking the release of the annual World Energy Outlook. Energy worldwide will “increasingly be based on clean sources of electricity,” he says.
But the report also notes that the world is still way off what’s needed to cap warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial times—the limit set in the Paris Agreement—because emissions would decline too slowly. It expects demand for oil and gas to peak later this decade and puts the world on pace to hit 2.4 degrees (4.3 Fahrenheit) of warming.
The report outlines a future where EV adoption continues to gain momentum, potentially displacing up to 6 million barrels per day of oil demand by 2030. The agency says based on current trends and policies and the availability of materials, EVs will reach 50% of global car sales in 2030.
The clean energy expansion, however, is happening alongside a rise in demand for energy, including power produced by burning coal, according to the Paris-based agency. “This has meant that even as we saw record growth in clean energy installations and additions, emissions kept increasing,” says Lauri Myllyvirta, lead analyst at the think tank Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air.
Read the full story. And watch the Business Report and 10/12 Industry Report Louisiana Energy Outlook that aired yesterday.
