IEA believes investment in energy efficiency should triple by 2030

The International Energy Agency (IEA) considers that in order to meet international targets for limiting global warming by mid-century, investments in energy efficiency should triple by 2030, despite the fact that this year they have grown by 10% after the break 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In its annual report evaluating progress in energy efficiency, the IEA recognizes that efforts in this area have returned to pre-pandemic levels in 2021, the effort has to be much greater to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 .

The decrease in global energy intensity, which evaluates these progress, suffered a slowdown in 2020 due to the impact of the pandemic since its indicator did not fall more than 0.5% and this year a decrease of 1.9% is expected thanks to an investment of US $ 300,000 million.

This means that this decrease in energy intensity returns at a rate equivalent to the average for the last decade, since the annual decline was 2.3% between 2011 and 2016 and then went to 1.3% in the following five years.

Duplicate improvements

The problem is that for the scenario of the OUCH From zero net greenhouse gas emissions by mid-century (and thus limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius), energy intensity would have to decrease at a 4% annual rate in the 2020-2030 period.

This will allow the world economy to grow 40% by the end of the decade, due to the increase in population and personal income, and at the same time that energy consumption falls by 7%.

The director general of the agency, Fatih Birol, stresses that energy efficiency is considered the best mechanism to meet energy needs “In the cleanest way and in most cases the cheapest”.

“There is no plausible path to net zero emissions without using our energy resources much more efficiently”Says Birol, who also emphasizes the potential it offers for the creation of millions of quality jobs.

Specifically, the organization estimates that with the volume of investments needed in this next decade to get on the path to carbon neutrality, four million additional jobs would be created in 2030.

Many of those jobs would be in construction and the installation of heating, cooling and hot water systems because it is precisely in buildings where there are some of the greatest margins for improvement.

Ban coal, diesel and gas boilers

To make them effective, the scenario advocated by the OUCH foresees the prohibition of the sale of coal and gas oil boilers worldwide from 2025, as well as gas boilers, except in cases where the gas supply is decarbonized and the heaters can burn hydrogen or other gases , so that they can be classified as zero emissions

It also proposes to increase the proportion of buildings that generate net zero emissions, from less than 1% today to 20% by 2030.

In the field of transportation, the agency believes that it is necessary to improve the efficiency of all types of vehicles, including those of combustion.

80% of combustion vehicles in 2030

Because it assumes that, even in its favorable scenario that leads to limiting global warming to 1.5 ° Celsius, 80% of passenger vehicles will continue to be combustion in 2030.

The OUCH recalls that in 2020, 40% of the vehicles sold were inefficient heavy-duty SUVs, while electric vehicles only represented 5%. It is true that a score of countries have announced that the commercialization of vehicles with combustion engines will be prohibited by 2035.

The authors of the report insist that around 80% of energy efficiency gains translate into savings for consumers, and that taking into account both the initial costs of the measures, but also the subsequent, lower operating costs.