- The International Energy Agency (IEA) today updated its roadmap for the energy sector to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
- The transition to renewable energy is accelerating while minimizing the use of technologies that are currently largely in the prototype stage, including carbon capture and hydrogen fuels.
- The first road map prepared in 2021 laid out the steps that every country in the world should take to achieve the goals of the Paris climate agreement, which aims to limit global warming to approximately 1.5 degrees Celsius by reaching net zero emissions.
The renewed road map to combat climate change refutes the idea that unproven technologies can play a significant role in preventing disaster.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) announced today that the energy sector aims to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. updated the road map. The transition to renewable energy is accelerating while minimizing the use of technologies that are currently largely in the prototype stage, including carbon capture and hydrogen fuels.
The IEA, originally established to protect the world’s oil supply, announced its landmark road map with a striking forecast for fossil fuels in 2021. In this context, it was called for no further investment in new oil, gas and coal projects. The map laid out the steps every country in the world needs to take to achieve the goals of the Paris climate agreement, which aims to limit global warming to around 1.5 degrees Celsius by achieving net-zero emissions. But the planet continues to warm, reaching 1.2 degrees Celsius, triggering weather and climate disasters. In the face of this situation, the IEA had to re-evaluate and revise the road map.
The big difference in the new report is that emerging technologies as high-tech solutions to climate change now play a significantly smaller role in 2021 than expected. These technologies, which include hydrogen fuel cells for heavy vehicles and devices that filter CO2 emissions from smokestacks or ambient air, now account for 35% of emissions reductions instead of around 50%.
Why are new technologies in decline?
Simply put, they do not live up to expectation.
“I think there’s a bit of realism coming into play with this report, and I’m curious to see what impact that realism will have across sectors,” said Dave Jones, global insight leader at energy think tank Ember. says.
The report states that “hydrogen production is a climate problem rather than a climate solution.” Hydrogen as a fuel is nothing new. However, it is produced using large amounts of gas. Some countries, including the United States, are investing in ways to make hydrogen more sustainable by using fossil fuels paired with renewable energy or carbon capture. If this method works, a cleaner fuel could be developed for planes, ships or trucks.
But creating the infrastructure to transport hydrogen has proven to be a bigger hurdle than expected, Jones says. On the other hand, electric charging infrastructure, although still limited, is growing much faster. The updated road map reduces the share of fuel cell electric heavy-duty vehicles on the road by up to 40% in 2050, compared to the initial 2021 forecast.
The roadmap similarly reduced the role of carbon capture technologies in reducing emissions from energy production by approximately 40%. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) spent hundreds of millions of dollars on failed carbon capture projects, mostly due to “factors affecting their economic viability,” according to a 2021 report from the Government Accountability Office.
What needs to be done?
“Removing carbon from the atmosphere is very costly,” IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said in a press release. “We have to do everything possible to stop putting it there in the first place.” he said. In the press release, if pollution does not decrease fast enough and the planet warms by more than 1.5 degrees; It is stated that countries may try to use “expensive and unproven at scale” carbon capture technologies to reverse some of this warming. However, relying on these technologies will also bring climate risks.
Renewable energy capacity needs to triple globally by 2030 to stop producing planet-warming pollution, according to the report. It is also important that spending on clean energy has more than doubled, from $1.8 trillion this year to $4.5 trillion by the beginning of the next decade. Energy efficiency also needs to double in the same timeframe, and the world’s richest countries need to reach net-zero emissions years before the global 2050 target.
The timing of this updated roadmap is important. The roadmap follows the United Nations’ first global report card on how well countries are tackling climate change. In short, it is lagging behind because emissions continue to rise despite the need to limit warming to 1.5 degrees.
The UN held a climate summit in New York last week to push countries to step up their clean energy commitments. But the heads of state of the countries with the largest carbon footprints – China and the USA – did not attend. It is hoped that these two dignitaries will also attend a larger UN climate conference that starts in Dubai in November.
Compiled by: Alp Eren Gümüş
