Amid chaotic energy markets, one agency paints a different picture
With winter arriving, Europe has an urgent need to replace the Russian-supplied natural gas that has been cut off — a consequence of European revulsion to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
As governments and companies plan rapid investments to fill that gap, they face the risk of locking in the use of natural gas at a time when nations are committed to reducing their emissions to combat climate change.
The risk is real, but the International Energy Agency is projecting a different future: accelerated adoption of renewable sources of energy.
IEA on Thursday released a projection that the short-term dislocations caused by the war in Ukraine will have long-term ramifications for energy markets and can hasten the adoption of renewable sources.
In the latest edition of World Energy Outlook, IEA says current-policies scenario “has global demand for every fossil fuel exhibiting a peak or plateau. In this scenario, coal use falls back within the next few years, natural gas demand reaches a plateau by the end of the decade, and rising sales of electric vehicles (EVs) mean that oil demand levels off in the mid-2030s before ebbing slightly to mid-century.”
The declines in fossil fuel use are steeper if nations adopt more climate-focused policies.
Reuters: Energy crisis sparked by Ukraine war to speed up green transition -IEA