Net zero goal still alive, says IEA – but the world still faces major obstacles to reach it

• Globally, the rate at which people are installing solar panels and buying electric vehicles is “perfectly in line” with what experts have said is necessary to reach net zero emissions by 2050.
• That’s according to Fatih Birol, the economist who leads the world’s energy watchdog, the International Energy Agency (IEA).
• In a recent update on humanity’s progress with cutting greenhouse gas emissions, the IEA concluded that by 2030:

The report assumes that renewable energy capacity will need to triple and replace coal, oil and gas at a rapid pace by the end of this decade to guard against catastrophic levels of warming. But despite sources like solar consistently defying even the most bullish predictions, fossil fuels have hardly budged: they supplied 82% of the world’s energy last year and 87% in 2000. Why?

Fossil fuels linger, wind power stalls

• “[In Europe and North America] renewable energy has slowly eaten into the proportion of energy generated by fossil fuels, while all other energy sources (nuclear, hydro, biomass) have remained about the same.
• Jansen says wind is a particularly valuable energy source during winter, when energy demand peaks.
• McNally does not believe this setback heralds the end of cheap offshore wind, as some have claimed.

Net zero must come sooner

• According to the IEA, “almost all countries” will also need to move their net zero target dates forward by several years.
• A team of energy experts at Australian National University (with support from nearly 900 engineers) recently argued that Australia could hit net zero as early as 2035.
• Australia must aim for 2035

  But in the UK at least, government policies on net zero are moving in the opposite direction.

We’ve been here before