IEA: clean energy commitments are 40% of what would be needed

The measures in favor of clean energy announced by governments around the world in their recovery plans from the crisis will make it possible to mobilize 40% of the money that the International Energy Agency (IEA) believes it would be necessary to meet international climate targets.

That means five percentage points more than what had been estimated in July thanks to the inclusion of measures presented in the last three months, according to the update made this Thursday by the IEA.

According to his calculations, governments have planned to dedicate US $ 470,000 million to the energy transition in their recovery plans, which is 20% more than at the end of July.

This amount, which represents around 3% of these plans, should allow the mobilization of another US $ 400,000 million annually from private and public actors in the period 2021-2023.

A figure that must be compared with the US $ 1 trillion investment in each of those three groups of actors that the IEA considers necessary so that the world can be in a position to achieve zero. net carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions on the horizon of 2050 in order to limit global warming to less than two degrees Celsius.

The agency acknowledges that advanced economies lead the projects for clean energy, with two-thirds of the spending that had been foreseen in their recovery plans.

In addition, the packages that are going to be dedicated to new infrastructures in France, Japan and the United States could increase the amounts there and reach levels close to those recommended in its Sustainable Recovery Plan that it presented in June 2020 and serves as a reference.

The situation invites much less optimism in emerging and developing countries, where the volume of investment in the energy transition is only around a tenth of that of advanced ones.

Apart from an infrastructure program in India, there is no other notable package that is being worked on.

The problem is that emerging and developing economies are facing an economic slowdown and their fiscal space to carry out large investments is limited.

Therefore, the conclusion of the IEA is that “recovery plans at the global level are still insufficient for emissions to be reduced structurally”.

And in that regard, he warns that “if there is no meaningful political action, global emissions will continue to diverge greatly from a rate consistent with zero emissions in the energy sector in 2050.”