World’s clean energy transition ‘too slow’, says IEA chief

The global transition to clean energy is still far too slow to meet climate pledges and risks fuelling even greater price volatility, the International Energy Agency warned yesterday.

"We are not investing enough to meet for future energy needs, and the uncertainties are setting the stage for a volatile period ahead," said IEA chief Fatih Birol.

"The social and economic benefits of accelerating clean energy transitions are huge, and the costs of inaction are immense."

In its annual World Energy Outlook report -- published just weeks before the COP26 summit in Glasgow -- the IEA calculated that investment in clean energy projects and infrastructure would need to be more than trebled over the next decade if those pledges are to be met.

At the summit, countries will come under pressure to commit to decisive action to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, as pledged in the landmark 2015 Paris climate agreement.

The IEA -- which advises developed countries on energy policy -- said that renewables such as wind and solar energy continued to grow rapidly, and electric vehicles set new sales records in 2020, even as economies were bent under the weight of Covid-19 lockdowns.

However, "this clean energy progress is still far too slow to put global emissions into sustained decline towards net zero" by 2050, which the agency believes will help limit the increase in global temperatures to 1.5C.