Dow Jones Newswires
The world has made almost no progress towards reducing the carbon content of its energy supplies in the last 20 years, despite pumping trillions of dollars of investment into renewable energy projects like wind and solar power, the International Energy Agency said Wednesday.
In its third annual report tracking the progress of clean energy technology, the IEA, which advises rich industrialized countries on energy policy, paints a bleak picture of global efforts to reduce emissions of gases that scientists say are causing climate change.
“The drive to clean up the world’s energy system has stalled,” Maria van der Hoeven, executive director of the IEA, said in a press statement. “We cannot afford another 20 years of listlessness. We need a rapid expansion in low-carbon energy technologies if we are to avoid a potentially catastrophic warming of the planet, but we must also accelerate the shift away from dirtier fossil fuels.”
The report by the IEA comes just a day after the survival of the world’s flagship plan to tackle global warming, the European Union’s carbon dioxide Emissions Trading System, was put in doubt after a proposal to support the carbon market was rejected by the European Parliament.
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