At the Brussels launch of the International Energy Agency’s 2023 World Energy Outlook, IEA Executive Director, Dr Fatih Birol, underscored the changing nature of the global energy system. “Even with current policies, the global energy landscape in 2030 will look very different today,” he said.
By 2030, the IEA expects that half of all global car sales will be of electric vehicles. It is also projected that clean electricity generation could grow to 60% by the end of the decade. In the home heating market, sales of heat pumps are projected to overtake sales of fossil fuel boilers. Birol also highlighted the need to recognise the impacts of a shifting Chinese economy on global energy demand. All of these developments, he outlined, will have major implications for the usage of fossil fuels, which the IEA forecasts will peak by the end of the decade.
Meanwhile, the amount of liquefied natural gas (LNG) capacity in the market will grow by about 50% by 2025, easing supply constraints and, ultimately, price pressures.
None of this means we are on track to meet the target of limiting global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, however. In advance of the upcoming UN climate conference, COP28, Birol called for leaders to come together and take decisive action on a range of measures. For COP28 to be a success, Birol argued that five conditions would need to be met:
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Executive Director of the International Energy Agency (IEA)
Dr Fatih Birol has served as Executive Director of the IEA since 2015, taking up his current position after rising through the ranks of the IEA over two decades. He has been named in TIME’s annual list of the world’s 100 most influential people and by Forbes as one of the most influential people in the world of energy. He chairs the World Economic Forum’s (Davos) Energy Advisory Board and is the recipient of numerous state decorations, including the French Legion of Honour and the Japanese Emperor’s Order of the Rising Sun.
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