IEA sends stark warning

Share

In an event to deliver its latest World Energy Outlook in Berlin today, the IEA has warned that without "bold" changes, "the world will lock itself into an insecure, inefficient and high-carbon energy system".

The report, which sets out a number of scenarios for the world’s energy future, warns that, "rising fossil-fuel energy use will lead to irreversible and potentially catastrophic climate change."

Forecasting rising CO2 emissions, which will peak in 2020, the report was also highly critical of fossil-fuel subsidies, which amounted to USD409 billion in 2010. These subsidies are forecast to rise to USD600 billion in 2020, or 0.7 percent of global GDP.

Fossil-fuel subsidies "carry large costs", according to the IEA, through encouraging wasteful consumption, increasing energy-price volatility and undermining the competitiveness of renewables.

Renewable energy, argues the IEA, will continue to require subsidies until at least 2020. These are forecast to grow in size from USD66 billion in 2010 to USD250 billion in 2020.

Popular content

In terms of the global energy mix, the World Energy Outlook forecasts renewables increasing its share from 13 percent today to 18 percent in 2035. This modest forecast juxtaposes sharply to forecasts reported by Bloomberg that solar would produce more than 50 percent of the world’s power by 2060.

While highly critical of fossil-fuel subsidies, the IEA was supportive of subsidies for renewable industries: "when they are well-designed, subsides to renewables and low-carbon energy technologies can bring long-term economic and environmental benefits."

This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.

Share

Related content

Elsewhere on pv magazine...

Leave a Reply

Please be mindful of our community standards.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.

Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.

You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.

Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.