The International Energy Agency (IEA) has called for governments to make bold policy changes in order to prevent the world from becoming locked into an insecure and unsustainable high-carbon energy system.
In its annual flagship publication, the World Energy Outlook (WEO), the IEA warns that the window of opportunity to act on climate change is closing as energy demand rises and turmoil from global events continues.
The launch of the publication comes just weeks before international climate change talks take place in Durban, South Africa.
“Growth, prosperity and rising population will inevitably push up energy needs over the coming decades. But we cannot continue to rely on insecure and environmentally unsustainable uses of energy,” said IEA Executive Director Maria van der Hoeven. “Governments need to introduce stronger measures to drive investment in efficient and low-carbon technologies.
“The Fukushima nuclear accident, the turmoil in parts of the Middle East and North Africa and a sharp rebound in energy demand in 2010 which pushed CO2 emissions to a record high, highlight the urgency and the scale of the challenge.”
The IEA believes that China is set to consolidate its position as the world’s largest energy consumer and that global demand for fossil fuels will continue to rise, driven largely by non-OECD countries. In its New Policies Scenario, which assumes that recent government commitments are implemented in a cautious manner, primary energy demand increases by one-third between 2010 and 2035.
In this scenario, the use of natural gas rises rapidly, almost catching up with the use of coal around the world. Uncertainty over the future of nuclear energy and a lack of clear regulatory and technical developments in the carbon capture and storage (CCS) field also threaten to derail climate change efforts, says the IEA.
The IEA believes that limiting the world to a 2°C rise in temperatures will be hard because future emissions have already been ‘locked in’ to the world’s energy system by existing capital stock, or by investments in infrastructure currently being made.
“As each year passes without clear signals to drive investment in clean energy, the ‘lock-in’ of high-carbon infrastructure is making it harder and more expensive to meet our energy security and climate goals,” said Fatih Birol, IEA Chief Economist.
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