The Executive Director of the IEA, International Energy Agency, says investing in oil and gas-based projects could “contradict” climate goals. Oil and gas would be a "junk investment", the exact words uttered by Dr Fatih Birol to the British Sky News.
Sweet and bitter words: lots of praise for the UK, but also a warning to no longer grant any licenses for projects based on fossil energies. A reminder that follows the delay with which the British government has put the brakes on the development of a new coal mine after 30 years.
A recent decision by the British government not to rule out new oil and gas licenses in the North Sea was also met with anger from environmental groups, with Greenpeace describing it as “a colossal failure in climate leadership”.
The world no longer needs gas and oil
The world does not need new investments in oil, coal or gas. Some investors, some governments can still go ahead and make investments in exposing new oil fields or opening new coal mines. It's up to them to decide, but this is not in line with achieving our climate goals.
Fatih Birol
A very tight roadmap
The International Energy Agency (IEA) has published its first guidance on net zero energy. It will submit it to government leaders ahead of the UK-hosted COP26 climate meeting in Glasgow in November.
Even if the government's commitments were all met, they would be well below what is necessary to bring emissions to zero by 2050. And it would not make it possible to limit the rise in Earth's temperature to 1,5 ° C.
The path to overhauling a global energy system with no more oil is very narrow. The report evokes drastic measures: banning gas boilers from 2025. Heating gas emissions must halve by 2030 and essentially reach zero by 2050.
Other key steps:
- Fossil fuel use must collapse by 2050. Zero new oil and natural gas fields beyond those that have already been approved for development. Zero new coal mines, zero mine expansions.
- Emissions from electricity generation drop to net zero in advanced economies by 2035 and globally by 2040. Renewables are driving the transformation, from 29% of generation in 2020 to nearly 90% in 2050.
- The number of public charging points for electric cars rises from around one million today to 40 million by 2030, with an annual investment of 90 billion euros by the end of the decade.
- By 2035, nearly all cars sold globally are electric. By 2050, nearly all heavy trucks sold are fuel cell or electric.
- Per capita income from oil and gas in countries that depend on fossil fuel production decreases by about 75% from € 1.700 to € 400 by 2030.
For some, this list of measures that will "kill" oil might seem like a "dream list". It is actually a list against nightmares.
Total change has begun, and it will be very, very fast.
