Clean energy remains just a tiny part of plans for economic recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic, despite some improvement, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said yesterday as it warned that carbon dioxide emissions are set to rebound.
Investments in clean energy — whether it is renewable production from renewable sources, electric vehicles or efficiency measures — represent only 3 percent of the US$16.9 trillion mobilized globally for recovery plans, the IEA said.
That is up from 2 percent when the IEA first issued a report on the subject in July.
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“Recovery plans globally are still insufficient to put emissions into structural decline,” said the Paris-based agency, which advises governments of industrialized nations on energy policy.
Moreover, it warned that “lead times on many recovery measures prevent them from reining in the immediate rebound in [carbon dioxide] emissions, which is set to be the second-largest in history” this year.
Over the longer term, absent significant steps, “global emissions are set to continue to diverge sharply from a path consistent with net-zero emissions from the energy sector by 2050,” it said.
The IEA’s warning came ahead of a G20 leaders summit at the weekend, as well as the COP26 summit in Glasgow, Scotland.
The agency says that about US$470 billion has been earmarked by governments for clean energy projects through 2030, a 20 percent increase from July.
However, it said that there is a growing divide between some advanced economies and less-wealthy nations where green investments are sorely necessary.
“The shortfall in sustainable recovery spending in emerging and developing economies is a global problem that requires a global solution,” IEA director Fatih Birol said in a statement.
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