Executive Director of the International Energy Agency and Turkish economist and energy expert Fatih Birol, he poses with his colleagues at the International Energy Agency headquarters in Paris on Sept 14, 2023.
PARIS - Record growth in clean energy technology, including solar panels and electric vehicles, means it is still possible to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, the International Energy Agency said on Tuesday.
The government also said that the world would need to invest nearly $4.5 trillion annually in the transition to cleaner energy from the start of the next decade, up from $1.8 trillion expected in 2023.
This year, temperatures have recorded record levels and global averages are around 1.1C higher than the pre-industrial average.
To solve climate change, pledges are a fantasy: only real action will solve climate change.
It compares with the 2015 UN Paris Agreement to keep global temperature rises well below 2C, while pursuing efforts to limit them to 1.5C to avoid the most severe consequences, such as drought, floods and increased wildfires.
In its updated Net Zero Roadmap, which envisions scenarios to achieve net zero emissions by the middle of the century, the IEA said an increase in solar power capacity and electric vehicle sales since 2021 were in line with targets, as well as infrastructure plans in both sectors.
However, more effort is needed as a tripling of global renewable capacity, a doubling of energy-efficient infrastructure, an increase in heat pump sales and a further rise in EV use by 2030, the IEA said.
It also called for a 75 percent cut in energy sector methane emissions by 2030, which would cost an estimated $75 billion, less than 2 percent of the oil and gas industry's net income in 2022.
Germany is expected to miss net zero by the end of the year as climate efforts falter.
The IEA path to net zero will also require an equitable transition, taking into account national circumstances and requiring advanced economies to reach net zero earlier than developing economies, the report said.
Politicians are taking advantage of the high cost-of-living crisis and seek re-election after the worst of this year's extreme weather. They have been backsliding on climate pledges.
IEA director Faith Birol, the director of the National Institute of Electrical Engineering, said: ''It's a tough decision to make,'' he said.