IEA Report on Green Energy
New IEA Report Delivers Failing Grades to Most Green Technologies
by Eric Wesoff June 13, 2017
Say you’re a member of the world community and a signee committed to the Paris Agreement’s long-term goals. You’d probably want to track your progress and assess your results.
You’d essentially be asking, “How well is the human race doing in its quest to transform its energy mix away from polluting sources?”
The answer is not so well, according to a new report from the IEA, Tracking Clean Energy Progress 2017, which looked at 26 technologies and their performance in meeting the 2°C Scenario (2DS) in 2025. (The 2DS is defined as “an energy system pathway and a CO2 emissions trajectory consistent with at least a 50 percent chance of limiting the average global temperature increase to 2°C by 2100.”)
Only three of the 26 technologies are on track to meet that goal, while eight are significantly off-track and will need strong policy corrections to hit the 2DS.
Unsurprisingly, the F’s go to:
Coal because it still generates 40% of the world’s electricity.
Coal with CCS because the “economics that do not pencil out.”
Advanced biofuels due to their insignificance. The lack of “building energy-efficiency codes” in most countries… Many of which are still working on having buildings, plumbing and electricity.
Ranking “somewhere in the middle” are the only two tech’s which could provide a pathway to significantly lower carbon emissions:
Nuclear because the world isn’t building enough new nuclear power plants.
Natural gas because it lacks the “flexibility to better integrate renewables.”
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