Scrap all fossil fuel projects: IEA’s clarion call
PARIS: All future fossil fuel projects must be scrapped if the world is to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 and to stand any chance of limiting warming to 1.5°C, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Tuesday.
In a special report designed to inform negotiators at the crucial COP26 climate summit in Glasgow in November, the IEA predicted a “sharp decline in fossil fuel demand” in the next three decades as well as a 2040 deadline for the global energy sector to achieve carbon neutrality.
It called for a rapid and vast ramping up of renewable energy investment and capacity, which bring gains in development, wealth and human health.
IEA executive director Fatih Birol said the roadmap outlined in the report showed that the path to global net-zero by 2050 was “narrow but still achievable”.
“The scale and speed of the efforts demanded by this critical and formidable goal - our best chance of tackling climate change and limiting global warming to 1.5°C - make this perhaps the greatest challenge humankind has ever faced,” he said.
Built using its industry network and energy modelling tools, the IEA’s roadmap lays out more than 400 milestones on the path to net-zero by mid-century.
These include “no new oil and gas fields approved for development” beyond projects that are already committed as of 2021.
Greenland ice sheet near tipping point, says study
A swathe of the Greenland ice sheet may be nearing a “tipping point” into a new unstable state of melting that would be irreversible in the short term, scientists warn.
As the central-western Greenland ice sheet melts, it is also shrinking in height, with its surface exposed to warmer temperatures at lower altitudes that contributes further to melting, according to research published on Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.