REA Response
Texas boasts abundant fossil fuel resources, including coal, oil, and natural gas, which can power a dependable and cost-effective energy future. It's time to support the fossil fuel industry to tackle the dual challenge of delivering dependable, affordable energy with fewer emissions.
Fossil fuel demand to peak this decade,
IEA forecasts
The Houston Chronicle, Sep. 26, 2023
WASHINGTON — Demand for fossil fuels will peak this decade as the adoption of clean energy technologies such as wind and solar continues to grow, the International Energy Agency forecast Tuesday.
The expansion is expected to come under existing government climate policies, the group said. If world governments were to expand policy in line with 2050 targets of net zero emissions, demand for oil, coal and natural gas would decline 25% by 2030 and 80% by the midcentury.
The report comes amid increasing tension around governments’ ability to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, which remain high despite a more than decadelong boom in clean energy. Greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels hit an all time high last year, the IEA said.
Clean energy advocates took the forecast of a peak in fossil fuel demand as a sign governments are starting to turn the corner.
“The age of fossil fuels is ending,” Laurence Tubiana, CEO of the European Climate Foundation, said in a statement. “This new report is clear, the only way forward in the energy sector is to develop renewables, efficiency and electrification. No new oil or gas fields or coal mines are needed.”
However, the IEA, which counsels governments on energy supply and demand, warned that “continued investment is required in some existing oil and gas assets and already approved projects.”
“Sequencing the increase in clean energy investment and the decline of fossil fuel supply investment is vital if damaging price spikes or supply gluts are to be avoided,” the report read.
Even with declining use of fossil fuels, it remains unclear whether emissions can be reduced enough to avoid the deadly heat waves, rising sea levels and other impacts of catastrophic climate change, which scientists pinpoint at an increase of 1.5 degrees Celsius beyond pre-industrial levels. Currently temperatures are .86 degrees Celsius above that level, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The IEA says global climate policies will need to be expanded. At existing policy levels, they said, the world will need to pull 5 billion tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere annually in the second half of the century to avoid going over 1.5 degrees.
“Removing carbon from the atmosphere is very costly. We must do everything possible to stop putting it there in the first place,” said IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol. “Keeping alive the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius requires the world to come together quickly.”
