Adaobi Rhema Oguejiofor
The International Energy Agency (IEA) has said that the rate of deployment of some clean energy technologies, such as solar Photovoltaic (PV) and Electric Vehicles (EVs), has revealed what can be achieved with sufficient ambition and policy action.
IEA also stated that faster change is urgently needed across most components of the energy system in order to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.
This was disclosed on Wednesday in IEA’s latest annual evaluation of global progress reports, where remarkable gains in the past year was revealed. The evaluation showed that electric car sales reached a record high of more than 10 million in 2022, a nearly tenfold increase in just five years and renewable electricity capacity additions rose to 340 gigawatts (GW), which is the largest ever deployment.
Currently, as a result of this, renewables account for 30 percent of global electricity generation. Investments in clean energy reached a record of $1.6 trillion in 2022, an increase of almost 15 percent from 2021, demonstrating continued confidence in energy transitions even in an uncertain economic climate.
“The transition to clean energy is occurring at different speeds across regions and sectors. For example, nearly 95 percent of global electric car sales in 2022 took place in China, the United States and Europe. Stronger international cooperation is needed to spread progress on electric cars and other key technologies to all regions, particularly emerging and developing economies,” the report read in parts.
According to the reports, Clean energy deployment is also occurring faster in some parts of the energy system, such as electricity generation and passenger cars, where costs have fallen and technologies are already relatively mature.
IEA stated that rapid innovation is still needed in order to bring to the market clean technologies for parts of the energy system where emissions are harder to tackle, such as heavy industry and long-distance transport, adding that positive steps on innovation have been made in the past few years, but a further acceleration is needed to soon bring to market more low-emissions technologies for these areas.
The 2023 update of Tracking Clean Energy Progress by IEA, tracks progress towards aligning the global energy system with a path to reaching net zero emissions by 2050. It does this by assessing over 50 different components, from sectors to technologies to infrastructure.
The Executive Director of IEA, Fatih Birol, said that “the clean energy economy is rapidly taking shape, but even faster progress is needed in most areas to meet international energy and climate goals. This update of Tracking Clean Energy Progress highlights some very promising developments, underlining both the need and the potential for greater action globally. The extraordinary growth of key technologies like solar and electric cars shows what is possible.”