IEA: Rich nations must accelerate race to net zero

PARIS: Rich and developing nations alike must sharply improve their net-zero targets, the International Energy Agency said Tuesday, warning that a clean energy surge was the main reason the world's climate goals are still within reach.

Wealthy countries must now reach carbon neutrality in around 2045, five years early, and China should speed up

by a decade to 2050 to keep to the Paris goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, the IEA said.

«The world has already delayed too long to avoid hard choices,» the global energy watchdog said.

The report, which comes ahead of crunch UN climate talks, updates the IEA's landmark 2021 «Net Zero Roadmap,» which said new fossil fuel development was incompatible with global decarbonization by mid-century and the 1.5 C target.

Two years later the IEA has seen progress in the form of record growth in solar power capacity and electric car sales.

These are in line with the IEA's pathway to net-zero emissions, as are the plans put in place by industry to roll out new manufacturing for them.

The energy sector is «changing faster than many people think,» the IEA said, adding that together these clean energy technologies are projected to deliver a third of the emissions reductions needed by 2030.

But it warned of the negative impact of increased fossil fuel investments and «stubbornly high emissions» during the same period, which saw a post-pandemic economic rebound and the energy crisis driven by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

«The pathway to 1.5 C has narrowed in the past two years, but clean energy technologies are keeping it open,» said IEA chief Fatih Birol.

Fossil focus

The IEA this month forecast that world demand for oil, gas and coal would peak this decade,