The world is at the ‘beginning of the end’ of the fossil fuel era with demand set to peak before 2030, the leading global energy agency has said.
International Energy Agency (IEA) executive director Fatih Birol said the need for oil, coal and natural gas will go into permanent decline ‘earlier than many people anticipated’.
He said the ‘world is on the cusp of a historic turning point’ as the agency forecast for the first time that demand will peak in the next few years even if governments do not announce any new climate change policies.
‘We are witnessing the beginning of the end of the fossil fuel era and we have to prepare ourselves for the next era,’ Birol said.
He called on policymakers to be ‘nimble’ and do more to speed up the transition to clean energy and reduce emissions to meet targets to limit global warming.
International Energy Agency executive director Fatih Birol (pictured) said the need for oil, coal and natural gas will go into permanent decline ‘earlier than many people anticipated’
Last year the IEA forecast that fossil fuel demand would peak in 2030, but it has shifted the date forwards in its latest annual World Energy Outlook report.
Writing in the FT ahead of the report’s publication next month, Birol said the ‘spectacular’ growth of clean energy such as solar panels and switch to electric cars was the driving force behind the revised forecast.
Meanwhile, the global energy crisis sparked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine helped to accelerate the transition as European countries shifted away from natural gas.
He also pointed to structural changes in China’s economy, including the growth of renewables and nuclear power, as a contributor to the revised forecast.
China is the world’s biggest coal consumer but the shift, coupled with a slowing economy, indicated ‘a decrease in coal use soon’, Birol said, adding: ‘Solar, wind and nuclear power will be eating up the potential growth of coal in China.
‘Peaks for the three fossil fuels are a welcome sight, showing that the shift to cleaner and more secure energy systems is speeding up and that efforts to avoid the worst effects of climate change are making headway.’
However, ‘faster and stronger policy action’ is needed to limit global warming, he said. Fossil fuel companies have previously blasted the agency over its calls to stop investing in new oil developments.
Opec, the group of oil-producing countries, accused the IEA in April of creating ‘volatility in markets’.
