A roadmap to 2050: transforming the energy sector

The International Energy Agency (IEA) has released its roadmap for 2050, the world’s first comprehensive report presenting actions to be taken by governments to rapidly boost clean energy and reduce fossil fuels, which in turn can create millions of jobs, lift economic growth and keep net-zero in reach.

The IEA explains reaching net-zero by 2050 on a global scale is theoretically feasible, but the pathway is narrow and requires an unprecedented transformation of how energy is produced, transported and used globally.

According to the IEA, the report “sets out a cost-effective and economically productive pathway, resulting in a clean, dynamic and resilient energy economy dominated by renewables like solar and wind instead of fossil fuels. It also examines key uncertainties, such as the roles of bioenergy, carbon capture and behavioural changes in reaching net-zero.”

IEA’s methodology builds upon only existing technology, though some in the prototype phase, thus encouraging major investment in clean and efficient energy technologies, combined with a major global push to accelerate innovation. For instance, the roadmap calls for annual additions of solar PV to reach 630 gigawatts by 2030, which means a quadrupling of our current pace. In other words, it amounts to “installing the world’s current largest solar park roughly every day”.

You can now read the full report online, or scroll down through the main findings that present 400 key milestones between now and 2050 in an interactive way.