Averting Climate Crisis Means No New Oil or Gas Fields, IEA Says - Bloomberg

Averting Climate Crisis Means No New Oil or Gas Fields, IEA Says - Bloomberg

The world has a choice -- stop developing new oil, gas and coal fields today or face a dangerous rise in global temperatures.

That’s the bold assessment from the International Energy Agency, the organization that has spent four decades working to secure oil supplies for industrialized nations. In its new road map for achieving net-zero global carbon emissions by 2050, the IEA laid out in stark terms what the planet must do to avoid harmful the climate change -- and just how far that is from our current reality.

Annual gains in energy efficiency must be three times faster over the next decade. Installations of photovoltaic panels would have to rival the size of the world’s biggest solar park -- every single day until 2030. Within three decades, the role of fossil fuels should reverse entirely -- from 80% of global energy needs today to barely a fifth by mid-century.

“Our road map shows the priority actions that are needed today to ensure the opportunity of net-zero emissions by 2050 -- narrow but still achievable -- is not lost,” IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said on Tuesday. It is “perhaps the greatest challenge humankind has ever faced.”