IEA calls for no new investment in fossil fuels as part of net-zero plan

The International Energy Agency (IEA) is calling for no new investment in fossil fuel supply in a roadmap it laid out on Tuesday for reaching net-zero emissions by 2050.

The IEA said in its report that its “narrow and extremely challenging” pathway to net-zero by that date contains no new oil and gas fields approved for development and no new coal mines or mine extensions beyond those the world has already committed to as of this year. 

It calls for unabated coal to fall by 90 percent in 2050, oil to fall by 75 percent and gas to fall by 55 percent.

The IEA’s plan also calls for ending the sale of gasoline-powered passenger cars by 2035 and phasing out unabated coal and oil power plants by 2040. 

It also says that by 2050, 90 percent of global electricity generation will need to come from renewable sources. 

In its conclusion, the agency says that its net-zero pathway will require governments, business investors and citizens to “take action this year and every year after so that the goal does not slip out of reach.”

The agency added that there are other ways to reach net-zero, but the one that its report lays out is the most “technically feasible, cost‐effective and socially acceptable.”

The IEA is an influential agency that launched in the 1970s to help coordinate a response to oil supply disruptions. 

A report from the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change found that in model pathways, the world would need to reach net-zero around 2050 in order to limit the planet’s warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. 

That is also the goal that President Biden has focused on for U.S. emissions.