Fossil fuel consumption expected to peak in this decade
The International Energy Agency is projecting a “noticeable peak in overall fossil fuel consumption within this decade” under nations’ existing energy and climate policies.
Why it matters: The first-time finding in IEA’s just-published annual World Energy Outlook underscores major changes underway in the global energy system.
Yes, but: While IEA sees “distinct signs of change,” the trends “do not yet amount to a paradigm shift” that would put the world on a path to meeting the Paris Agreement goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.
Related Knowledge Center: Climate science
What began as a theory in the 1890s — that industrial emissions of carbon dioxide could increase global temperatures — had progressed to a scientific fact a century later. Scientists across a range of disciplines are studying the impact of the still-growing concentration of carbon dioxide and other so-called “greenhouse gases” in the atmosphere as they call for industrial and governmental policies to slow, then halt, the warming of the planet.