The International Energy Agency (IEA) regularly conducts in-depth peer reviews of the energy policies of its member, partner and accession countries. This process supports energy policy development and encourages the exchange of international best practices and experiences. Lithuania has made strong progress towards realising its vision of a secure, competitive, sustainable and innovative energy system in the Baltic region. The government supported major reforms of the electricity and natural gas markets, and further integrated with the EU energy system and markets. Thanks to the expansion of renewable energy sources, notably bioenergy and wind, the carbon intensity of the power and heat sector has decreased over the past decade. Nevertheless, emissions have been on the rise, notably in the transport sector. Lithuania will need to make energy efficiency a priority, design a strong renewable strategy, and reform energy taxes to underpin its ambitious targets. This...

The People’s Republic of China (“China”) officially launched its national emissions trading system (ETS) in 2017, and it will come into operation in 2021. Initially covering the power sector, which accounts for over 40% of China’s energy-related CO2 emissions, the ETS is set to subsequently be expanded to other energy-intensive sectors. China’s national ETS could be an important market-based instrument to help the country meet its recently enhanced climate goals to have CO2 emissions peak before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060. This report explores how China’s ETS can spur emissions reductions from electricity generation and support power sector transformation. It builds on understanding of power sector development and policy trends and relies on in-depth national and provincial scenario modelling of China’s power system from 2020 to 2035. This study also analyses how the ETS’s output- and rate-based design affects overall power sector emissions,...

The IEA and CMCC Weather for Energy Tracker is a new free platform showcasing weather-related data useful to understand, analyse and model the energy sector, from generation to use across sectors. Data is available both at the grid and country level, with a daily and monthly resolution from 2000 to the latest available month, and including monthly climatologies and anomalies.

The International Energy Agency will host a press webinar to launch its new report reviewing the energy policies of Lithuania with Mr Dainius Kreivys, Minister of Energy of Lithuania and Dr Fatih Birol, Executive Director of the International Energy Agency.

Reducing methane emissions from oil and gas operations is among the most cost-effective and impactful actions that governments can take to achieve global climate goals. There is a major opportunity for countries looking to develop policies and regulations in this area to learn from the experience of jurisdictions that have already adopted methane-specific regulations in order to design frameworks that are adapted and tailored to local circumstances. One of the aims of any new policy effort should be to improve measurement and reporting of emissions data, which can in turn lead to more efficient regulatory interventions. However, the current state of information on emissions should not stand in the way of early action on methane abatement. Experience shows that countries can take an important “first step” today based on existing tools, which may include prescriptive requirements on known “problem sources” combined with monitoring programmes that seek to detect and address...

Thailand is committed to playing its part in the international efforts aimed at addressing climate issues. As it is for most countries, the power sector in Thailand is among the largest emitters, accounting for 38% of energy-related CO2 emissions. Hence, reducing the emissions from this sector is fundamental in reducing the country’s total emissions. This report explores the potential role of carbon pricing in driving emissions reduction in power generation and supporting a clean energy transition in the country. Building on the understanding of the current power market structure and future development plans, this report leverages on the results from in-depth 2030 power production cost modelling to assess the potential impacts of carbon pricing on power generation dispatch and investment, and the resulting implications on emissions and costs. The recommendations arising from the assessment suggest that carbon pricing can play an active role in reducing the emissions from...

To shed light on the long-term prospects for clean energy, we investigate the historical financial performance of energy companies around the world in search of broad structural trends. This is the second in a series of joint reports by the International Energy Agency and Imperial College Business School examining the risk and return proposition in energy transitions. In this paper, we extend our coverage of publicly-traded renewable power and fossil fuel companies to the following: 1) global markets, 2) advanced economies, 3) emerging market and developing economies, and 4) China. We calculate the total return and annualized volatility of these portfolios over 5 and 10-year periods.

Aimed at decision-makers in both the private and public sectors, this report is a unique source of intelligence on the innovation trends across the energy system, in particular low-carbon energy (LCE) technologies. It draws on the latest information available in patent documents and the combined expertise of IEA analysts and EPO examiners. It is based on an updated international classification of low-carbon innovation that provides a widely used standard for consistent and robust analysis of patents for technologies contributing to climate change mitigation. Trends in LCE innovation have never been more important to policymaking. Not only do climate change goals demand urgent and informed strategic decisions about innovation, but investment in new technology fields has taken centre stage in proposed recovery plans to combat the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic (IEA, 2020b). In addition, concerns about the demands future clean energy technologies might place upon...

Renewable energy use increased 3% in 2020 as demand for all other fuels declined. The primary driver was an almost 7% growth in electricity generation from renewable sources. Long-term contracts, priority access to the grid, and continuous installation of new plants underpinned renewables growth despite lower electricity demand, supply chain challenges, and construction delays in many parts of the world. Accordingly, the share of renewables in global electricity generation jumped to 29% in 2020, up from 27% in 2019. Bioenergy use in industry grew 3%, but was largely offset by a decline in biofuels as lower oil demand also reduced the use of blended biofuels.

As the world enters a second year of the Covid-19 pandemic, the annual Global Energy Review assesses the direction energy demand and carbon dioxide emissions are taking in 2021. The latest statistical data and real-time analysis confirm our initial estimates for 2020 energy demand and CO2 emissions while providing insights into how economic activity and energy use are rebounding in countries around the world – and what this means for global emissions. The accelerating rollouts of Covid-19 vaccinations in many major economies and widespread fiscal responses to the economic crisis are boosting the outlook for economic growth and leading to a rebound in energy demand in 2021. The report explores whether the rebound in activity risks pushing CO2 emissions to a new high and to what degree new policies targeting a sustainable recovery are able to curb a rebound in emissions. The pace of global vaccine rollouts, the possible emergence of new variants of the Covid-19 virus, and...

Global CO2 emissions declined by 5.8% in 2020, or almost 2 Gt CO2 – the largest ever decline and almost five times greater than the 2009 decline that followed the global financial crisis. CO2 emissions fell further than energy demand in 2020 owing to the pandemic hitting demand for oil and coal harder than other energy sources while renewables increased. Despite the decline in 2020, global energy-related CO2 emissions remained at 31.5 Gt, which contributed to CO2 reaching its highest ever average annual concentration in the atmosphere of 412.5 parts per million in 2020 – around 50% higher than when the industrial revolution began.

In 2021 global energy-related CO2 emissions are projected to rebound and grow by 4.8% as demand for coal, oil and gas rebounds with the economy. The increase of over 1 500 Mt CO2 would be the largest single increase since the carbon-intensive economic recovery from the global financial crisis more than a decade ago, it leaves global...

Renewable energy use increased 3% in 2020 as demand for all other fuels declined. The primary driver was an almost 7% growth in electricity generation from renewable sources. Long-term contracts, priority access to the grid, and continuous installation of new plants underpinned renewables growth despite lower electricity demand, supply chain challenges, and construction delays in many parts of the world. Accordingly, the share of renewables in global electricity generation jumped to 29% in 2020, up from 27% in 2019. Bioenergy use in industry grew 3%, but was largely offset by a decline in biofuels as lower oil demand also reduced the use of blended biofuels.

Energy and climate leaders from more than 40 countries who took part in the IEA-COP26 Net Zero Summit last week called on countries to work more closely together to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and stave off a potentially catastrophic rise in global temperatures. But they also emphasised that major international efforts to boost clean energy policies and investment can bring more immediate benefits: massive job creation and economic opportunities that can put the world on a sustainable recovery path from the Covid crisis.

“This is the greatest economic opportunity we’ve ever had’’ said John Kerry, the US Presidential Special Envoy for Climate, during the opening session of the Summit. “We are looking at the biggest job market ever known. Every task we have – building out the grid, solar power, wind power, building out hydrogen, batteries, switching to electric vehicles – will all create jobs.”

And it’s not just an exciting prospect for advanced economies. In...

Lockdown measures and the economic fallout from Covid-19 mean that CO2 emissions are expected to decline by 7% in 2020 and investment in clean energy is expected to fall by 8%. In the Stated Policies Scenario (STEPS), CO2 emissions rebound in 2021, exceed 2019 levels in 2027, and rise to 36?Gt in 2030. This is far from the immediate peak and decline in emissions needed to meet climate goals, including the Paris Agreement.

Energy efficiency represents a critical resource to energy systems and the economy, contributing to lower bills, reducing energy waste and increasing competitiveness.

This webinar will focus on the analysis of progress with energy efficiency in Brazil, published in the Atlas of Energy Efficiency 2020 (available in English and Portuguese). The IEA will join Brazil’s Energy Research Centre (EPE) and National Union of the Cement Industry (SNIC) to present key findings and recommendations from the report.

This year’s Atlas of Energy Efficiency focuses on five sectors: buildings, the residential sector, services, industry, and transport. It features two additional chapters, co-authored with the IEA. The first is a deep-dive into energy efficiency and carbon abatement in the cement sector in Brazil and internationally. The second explores the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on energy demand and efficiency.

The webinar will include simultaneous translation...

Global solar PV capacity additions are expected to reach nearly 107 GW in 2020 in the main case, representing stable growth from 2019 (this forecast has been revised up by 18% from the market report update published in May). IEA monthly deployment data indicate that construction activity for utility-scale projects slowed from March through April, but rapidly regained speed in mid-May.

Deployment of distributed PV applications remains sluggish in large markets such as China and the United States, although activity in most European markets, Australia and Brazil has not been hampered significantly. Still, the share of distributed applications in total PV deployment is expected to decline to 37% this year, the lowest since 2017.

Carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) will need to be a key pillar in successful clean energy transitions. It is the only group of technologies that contributes both to directly reducing emissions in critical economic sectors and to removing CO2 to balance emissions that cannot be avoided – a balance that is at the heart of net-zero emission goals.

CO2 storage is a crucial component of the CCUS value chain. While CO2 can be captured from a range of sources – including from fossil- and biomass-based power generation, industrial processes and directly from the air – permanently storing this CO2 is the essential enabler of large-scale emissions reductions. Technology-based approaches to removing carbon from the atmosphere, critically depend on CO2 storage for “negative emissions”.

In IEA analysis of net-zero pathways, the need for CO2 storage grows from around 40 Mt/year today to more than 5000 Mt/year by mid-century. Carbon management...

The IEA main case scenario forecasts that the increase in net renewable electricity capacity additions will be almost 4% higher in 2020 than in 2019. This means the world is expected to install over 198 GW of renewable capacity this year, breaking another record and accounting for almost 90% of the increase in total power capacity. Higher additions of wind (+8%) and hydropower (+43%) are expected in 2020, while solar PV growth remains stable. More utility-scale PV plants will be installed, while growth in distributed PV systems decreases almost 8% as individuals and companies reprioritise investments in light of the economic crisis.

This is a 2nd webinar in the China’s electricity power sector transformation webinar series co-hosted by the IEA, the China Electric Power Planning & Engineering Institute (EPPEI), the Royal Danish Embassy in Beijing and Danish Energy Agency (DEA) with support from China National Energy Administration (NEA), the French Development Agency (AFD) and the European Commission.

The main objective of this webinar to provide targeted audiences with insights into China’s electric power sector transition both in the near future (14th Five-year) and in the medium & long run. The focus of this webinar is on cutting-edge energy technologies and deployment options that have received tremendous interest and debate in the energy sector in China including: