IEA calls time on new fossil fuel development in roadmap to net-zero

The world can reach net-zero by 2050 only if governments stop the development of new oil and gas fields as well as building coal-fired power stations this year.

In a wide-ranging analysis, the International Energy Agency (IEA) also demanded global investment in energy to more than double from $2 trillion (£1.42 trillion) a year to $5 trillion (£3.54 trillion).

The recommendations are among 400 milestones on a roadmap published by IEA to net-zero.

Key steps include emissions from electricity generation falling to net‐zero in advanced economies by 2035 and globally by 2040. Renewables would drive the transformation, up from 29 per cent of generation last year to nearly 90 per cent by 2050.

No new fossil-fuel cars should be sold beyond 2035 while new gas boilers should be banned by 2025.

Nearly all cars sold globally by 2035 should be electric, the IEA says, and by 2050 nearly all new heavy goods vehicles are fuel cell or electric.

The number of public charging points for electric cars must rise from around one million today to 40 million by 2030. This would mean an annual investment of $90 billion by the end of the decade.

The IEA’s roadmap assumes a global population rise of about 2 billion, supplying electricity to 785 million people who currently do not have access to it as well as clean cooking for 2.6 billion people. It estimates the total cost at about $40 billion a year, or 1 per cent of global energy sector investment each year, and would cut premature deaths from indoor air pollution by about 2.5 million annually.