As the Covid-19 pandemic unfolded in early 2020 and lockdowns were implemented in countries around the world, global car sales experienced an unprecedented drop. Despite gradual recovery over the course of the year, early market data suggests that global car sales contracted in 2020 by an estimated 14% year-on-year, mirroring closely the IEA estimate of 15%. The drop in global car sales in 2020 was significantly larger than the one observed during the global financial crisis of 2007-2009.

As the pandemic began to surge in early 2020, there was a general expectation that electric car markets would likely be more resilient than the general automotive sector although a drop in electric car sales was generally expected nonetheless, albeit a smaller one than overall car sales. The IEA estimated a slight increase in global electric car sales despite the pandemic, and suggested that this could be higher if additional stimulus measures were taken.

This outlook explores two pathways for road transport electrification in the pivotal decade to 2030. It assesses the projected uptake of electric vehicles (EVs) across transport modes and regions. Then, it explores the implications of electric mobility for charging infrastructure, battery demand, energy demand, GHG emissions and revenue from road transport fuel taxation. This outlook for electric mobility takes a scenario-based approach which build on the latest market data, policy drivers and technology perspectives: the Stated Policies and Sustainable Development scenarios.

With just 4% of the world’s water supply but 18% of its population, India counts as one of the world’s most water?stressed countries. And India’s rapid economic ascent in recent years has only increased demand for both energy and water, putting these interconnected resources under increasing pressure and making the nexus between them central to the country’s energy security and transition goals.

Agriculture accounts for 80% of India’s water demand, but water is also critical to its energy sector, particularly for electricity generation. The development of India’s power sector over the next two decades will take place against a backdrop of increasing water stress, climate change and rising water demand from its agricultural, residential and industrial sectors. A continuation of current trends in water usage would put projected demand for water far ahead of the available supply and threaten the country’s energy output.

But India has an opportunity. Based on...

The energy sector is the source of around three-quarters of greenhouse gas emissions today and holds the key to averting the worst effects of climate change, perhaps the greatest challenge humankind has faced. Reducing global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions to net zero by 2050 is consistent with efforts to limit the long-term increase in average global temperatures to 1.5?C. This calls for nothing less than a complete transformation of how we produce, transport and consume energy. The growing political consensus on reaching net zero is cause for considerable optimism about the progress the world can make, but the changes required to reach net-zero emissions globally by 2050 are poorly understood. A huge amount of work is needed to turn today’s impressive ambitions into reality, especially given the range of different situations among countries and their differing capacities to make the necessary changes. This special IEA report sets out a pathway for achieving this goal,...

Governments worldwide are deploying an unprecedented amount of fiscal support aimed at stabilising and rebuilding their economies, but only about 2% of this spending has been allocated to clean energy measures, according to new analysis from the International Energy Agency.

The sums of money, both public and private, being mobilised worldwide by recovery plans fall well short of what is needed to reach international climate goals. These shortfalls are particularly pronounced in emerging and developing economies, many of which face particular financing challenges.

Under governments’ current recovery spending plans, global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are set to climb to record levels in 2023 and continue rising in the following years. This would leave the world far from the pathway to net-zero emissions by 2050 that the IEA set out in its recent Global Roadmap to Net Zero.

These findings come from the new Sustainable Recovery Tracker that the IEA...

Female inventors are rising across different technological sectors, with the highest rates reported in the health and chemistry sectors. In the patent classes closely associated to the energy sector – combustion apparatus, engines, pumps and power – women are listed in less than 11% of applications, and over 15% for climate change mitigation technologies, which is comparable to all technologies, including information and communication technologies.

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Global

After a decade of rapid growth, in 2020 the global electric car stock hit the 10 million mark, a 43% increase over 2019, and representing a 1% stock share. Battery electric vehicles (BEVs) accounted for two-thirds of new electric car registrations and two-thirds of the stock in 2020. China, with 4.5 million electric cars, has the largest fleet, though in 2020 Europe had the largest annual increase to reach 3.2 million.

Overall the global market for all types of cars was significantly affected by the economic repercussions of the Covid-19 pandemic. The first part of 2020 saw new car registrations drop about one-third from the preceding year. This was partially offset by stronger activity in the second-half, resulting in a 16% drop overall year-on-year. Notably, with conventional and overall new car registrations falling, global electric car sales share rose 70% to a record 4.6% in 2020.

About 3 million new electric cars...

The world’s industry sector is one of the most critical engines of global economic growth, but also one of the largest emitters of CO2. Industry currently accounts for a quarter of global energy and process-related CO2 emissions, with 70% of the sector’s emissions produced by three heavy industries: steel, cement, and chemicals. The materials from these industries are needed for buildings, infrastructure, vehicles, consumer goods like mobile phones and detergents, packaging, fertilisers and many other uses that are integral to thriving economies and our daily lives. Society will surely continue to need these materials far into the future, including in a future where society ambitiously pursues net-zero emissions: we must keep the materials and lose the emissions.

Achieving ambitious emission targets in heavy industries constitutes a formidable challenge. Heavy industry is an area whose emissions are often considered “hard-to-abate,” and one we provide in-depth...

Modern and sustainable forms of bioenergy play an important role in our new special report on how the global energy sector can reach net-zero emissions by 2050, which also examines bioenergy’s advantages and limitations in efforts to address climate change by limiting the rise in global temperatures to 1.5 °C.

Bioenergy is a versatile renewable energy source that can be used in all sectors, and it can often make use of existing transmission and distribution systems and end-user equipment. But there are constraints on expanding the supply of bioenergy, and possible trade-offs with sustainable development goals, including avoiding conflicts at local level with other uses of land, notably for food production and biodiversity protection.

To navigate these risks, our Roadmap to Net Zero by 2050 combined for the first time the IEA’s global energy system modelling with the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)’s Global Biosphere Management...

Global

After a decade of rapid growth, in 2020 the global electric car stock hit the 10 million mark, a 43% increase over 2019, and representing a 1% stock share. Battery electric vehicles (BEVs) accounted for two-thirds of new electric car registrations and two-thirds of the stock in 2020. China, with 4.5 million electric cars, has the largest fleet, though in 2020 Europe had the largest annual increase to reach 3.2 million.

Overall the global market for all types of cars was significantly affected by the economic repercussions of the Covid-19 pandemic. The first part of 2020 saw new car registrations drop about one-third from the preceding year. This was partially offset by stronger activity in the second-half, resulting in a 16% drop overall year-on-year. Notably, with conventional and overall new car registrations falling, global electric car sales share rose 70% to a record 4.6% in 2020.

About 3 million new electric cars...

By joining our first online professional courses, you will come face-to-face with the IEA's work to train and build capacity, allow experiences to be shared and global progress to be tracked.

The energy sector is the source of around three-quarters of greenhouse gas emissions today and holds the key to averting the worst effects of climate change, perhaps the greatest challenge humankind has faced. Reducing global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions to net zero by 2050 is consistent with efforts to limit the long-term increase in average global temperatures to 1.5?C. This calls for nothing less than a complete transformation of how we produce, transport and consume energy. The growing political consensus on reaching net zero is cause for considerable optimism about the progress the world can make, but the changes required to reach net-zero emissions globally by 2050 are poorly understood. A huge amount of work is needed to turn today’s impressive ambitions into reality, especially given the range of different situations among countries and their differing capacities to make the necessary changes. This special IEA report sets out a pathway for achieving this goal,...

This table highlights key policies and measures that support the deployment of electric vehicles (EVs) and zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) for light-duty vehicle (LDV) and heavy-duty vehicle (HDV) models. It summarises existing measures as well as announced targets and ambitions by region and country. These take a variety of forms, such as fuel economy standards, CO2 emissions standards, deployment roadmaps, and EV sales or stock targets and ambitions. The table does not include fiscal policies such as subsidies, carbon taxes or similar policy instruments.

The policies and measures are structured in four categories:

Global

After a decade of rapid growth, in 2020 the global electric car stock hit the 10 million mark, a 43% increase over 2019, and representing a 1% stock share. Battery electric vehicles (BEVs) accounted for two-thirds of new electric car registrations and two-thirds of the stock in 2020. China, with 4.5 million electric cars, has the largest fleet, though in 2020 Europe had the largest annual increase to reach 3.2 million.

Overall the global market for all types of cars was significantly affected by the economic repercussions of the Covid-19 pandemic. The first part of 2020 saw new car registrations drop about one-third from the preceding year. This was partially offset by stronger activity in the second-half, resulting in a 16% drop overall year-on-year. Notably, with conventional and overall new car registrations falling, global electric car sales share rose 70% to a record 4.6% in 2020.

About 3 million new electric cars...

Over the past decade, India has risen up the ranks to become the fourth-largest electricity market in the world, after the United States, the People’s Republic of China and the European Union. Electricity demand has increased as the country successfully brought electricity connections to millions of its citizens and living standards rose. Due to population growth, urbanisation, industrialisation and air-conditioning units, India’s electricity demand will continue to increase rapidly. To meet this demand in a sustainable manner, the country is aiming to realise a massive expansion of renewable energy. In the IEA Stated Policies Scenario, wind and solar PV together reach a share of more than 40% in total installed capacity by 2030, and make up around a quarter of total electricity generation. The enormous opportunities and challenges in this power sector transformation are explored in depth in the recently published IEA report, Renewables Integration in India.

"The rebound in energy investment is a welcome sign, but much greater resources have to be mobilised and directed to clean energy technologies to put the world on track to reach net-zero emissions by 2050"

The energy sector is the source of around three-quarters of greenhouse gas emissions today and holds the key to averting the worst effects of climate change, perhaps the greatest challenge humankind has faced. Reducing global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions to net zero by 2050 is consistent with efforts to limit the long-term increase in average global temperatures to 1.5?C. This calls for nothing less than a complete transformation of how we produce, transport and consume energy. The growing political consensus on reaching net zero is cause for considerable optimism about the progress the world can make, but the changes required to reach net-zero emissions globally by 2050 are poorly understood. A huge amount of work is needed to turn today’s impressive ambitions into reality, especially given the range of different situations among countries and their differing capacities to make the necessary changes. This special IEA report sets out a pathway for achieving this goal,...