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The IEA’s Latest Report May Have Just Saved The World

There is nowhere left to hide — but there is also hope.

Will Lockett

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Predict

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6 min read

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4 days ago

Humanity has exhausted almost all its chances to stop a lethal global self-inflicted catastrophe. This isn’t hyperbole, as this was the main message from the IEA’s latest report. In fact, this latest report has taken a far more direct, pragmatic and damning turn compared to the IEA’s past publications, marking a significant shift in the influential organisation’s attitude. It has given big polluters and heel-dragging developed countries nowhere to hide, ensuring upcoming milestone climate summits like Cop28 aren’t greenwashed to uselessness. As such, it may have just saved the world.

The IEA does net-zero roadmap reports and updates them every few years. These look at the state of climate change and our progress towards reducing our impact on the planet, then gives advice to the international community through regular reports on what we must do to advance our progress to ensure we limit climate change to acceptable levels.

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Their last report update was in 2021. This landmark report was the first to state that fossil fuel expansion needed to stop immediately in order to limit global warming by 1.5 degrees Celsius. Moreover, it advised that new unscaled and currently expensive technologies, such as carbon capture, hydrogen and bioenergy, were needed to make around half of the emissions’ reduction between now and 2050. In the years since, this report has significantly influenced international and national climate action and legislation. It has spurred massive investments into carbon capture and other unproven technologies, whilst helping to tighten international efforts to limit oil expansion.

But, the updated 2023 report has changed tack quite dramatically. Now, it sees only 35% of emissions cuts coming from unproven technologies like carbon capture, hydrogen and biofuels. Instead, it is placing a much larger emphasis on already existing renewable energy, efficiency measures and decarbonisation of industries. While this might sound like a slight change, it leaves big polluters and oil-dependent nations no room to greenwash their way through net-zero…