International Energy Agency sounds warning for all nations

The International Energy Agency (IEA) sounded a clear warning in a report published on May May 18th, 2021, with which the energy policy advisory organization joins the environmental groups that have urged action. The report imparts a clear message in its underlining of the massive scale of the effort ahead to keep global temperature increase to the target of 1.5 Celsius above preindustrial levels. In the steps the IEA outlines, the clear call is for increased cooperation between the world’s governments and businesses as the current trend set by the countries across the world are not in line with what is necessary.

The milestones in the IEA’s plan include the banning of the sale of new oil and gas furnaces for building heating by 2025, global sales of EVs should reach 60% of all new car sales by 2030, achieving zero-carbon energy production among the world’s most advanced economies by 2035, and, by 2040, electrifying heavy transport and making aviation cleaner. These goals, the IEA stresses, are not possible with present technologies alone, estimating that some 50% of the reductions will be enabled by technologies yet to be developed. This calls for active cooperation between the private and public sectors to ensure technology development is prioritized in the correct areas and quickly taken into use on a widescale.

The Alliance’s philosophy has been, from its founding, to bridge the public and private sectors and bring the cutting edge of research into practice through active collaboration and ongoing dialogue across sectors and the worlds of academia and business. These themes will be at the heart of the upcoming annual Autumn Forum to be held in November where the Alliance looks forward to sharing findings from numerous projects underway in this crucial area.

Read the New York Times’s analysis of the IEA report here and the full IEA report here.