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The Lifestyle for Environment (LiFE) initiative, launched in 2022 by India, aims to promote environmentally responsible consumption choices and behaviour in India and worldwide. High level principles on implementing LiFE were adopted by the G20, under India’s presidency.
Following the first IEA report on LiFE, which examined the impact on energy consumption, costs and emissions of measures like those proposed by the LiFE initiative, this report provides a concrete policy toolkit for advancing LiFE implementation at the level of countries, subnational jurisdictions and individuals, and through international fora such as the G20.
Enabling people to adopt sustainable consumption choices and habits requires dedicated and sustained policy interventions. This report examines the mechanisms of policies in driving change. Of the almost 1.7 billion tonnes (Gt) of CO2 savings that would be achieved in G20 countries by an implementation of LiFE-aligned measures, around 60% could be directly influenced or mandated by policies.
It showcases that the LiFE movement is gaining traction, tracking around 120 LiFE-aligned policies already implemented across G20 countries and building policy toolkit based on experiences and best practices.
Finally, it examines the multiple co-benefits of LiFE measures on equity, air pollution, employment and economic development, health, water, food and land-use.
This report provides a case study for the development of sustainable energy lending in Ukraine. It reviews the macro-economic and political context for green investments in Ukraine, before looking in more detail at the role and capacity of the banking sector. The study is part of a wider OECD project promoting access to private finance for green investments in the EU Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries, and follows on from a regional assessment undertaken in 2015. This work forms part of the “Greening Economies in the European Union’s Eastern Neighbourhood” (EaP GREEN) programme, which aims to support the six Eastern Partnership countries to move towards a green economy by decoupling economic growth from environmental degradation and resource depletion.
This summary report provides an overview of the impact that standards and labelling programmes are having on the energy efficiency of energy-using appliances and equipment in countries around the world. It draws on a global review of nearly 400 published reports, studies and papers covering more than 100 products – representing one of the most comprehensive datasets assembled on the topic to date. It confirms that improvements to the energy efficiency of appliances and equipment are some of the lowest-cost options available today for reducing energy consumption and associated emissions, with typical society benefit/cost ratios of 4:1. Programmes that have been operating the longest, such as those in the United States and the European Union, are estimated to deliver annual reductions of around 15% of total current electricity consumption. These programmes provide net financial benefits to individuals and the community. Other benefits, including employment, product innovation, water savings, improvements in air quality and the reduction of public expenditure on health, add to the case for stronger standards and labels.
With an electricity system defined by high shares of hydropower, large capacity for interconnection with its neighbours and low carbon intensity, Switzerland is well positioned to attain its objective of net zero carbon emissions by 2050. However, the exact pathway remains the subject of discussion. First, what should the shares of nuclear energy and variable renewable energies such as solar PV and wind be in the energy mix? Second, what degree of electricity trade should Switzerland have with its European neighbours?
New system modelling of different energy policy choices with the Nuclear Energy Agency’s POSY model shows that all considered scenarios are technically feasible. However, relying on variable renewables alone or decoupling Switzerland from neighbouring countries could increase total system costs by up to 250%. Instead, continuing to operate Switzerland’s newest nuclear power plants alongside existing hydropower resources, while maintaining interconnection capacity at current levels, emerges as the most cost-effective option to achieve net zero emissions in 2050. Ample data and technical documentation of a least-cost mixed integer (MILP) modelling with hourly resolution are also provided in order to allow replication, extension and discussion of this study’s findings
Achieving Net Zero Electricity Sectors in G7 Members is a new report by the International Energy Agency that provides a roadmap to driving down CO2 emissions from electricity generation to net zero by 2035, building on analysis in Net Zero by 2050: A Roadmap for the Global Energy Sector.
The new report was requested by the United Kingdom, under its G7 Presidency, and followed the G7 leaders’ commitment in June 2021 to reach “an overwhelmingly decarbonised” power system in the 2030s and net zero emissions across their economies no later than 2050. It is designed to inform policy makers, industry, investors and citizens in advance of the COP26 Climate Change Conference in Glasgow that begins at the end of October 2021.
Starting from recent progress and the current state of play of electricity in the G7, the report analyses the steps needed to achieve net zero emissions from electricity, and considers the wider implications for energy security, employment and affordability. It identifies key milestones, emerging challenges and opportunities for innovation.
The report also underscores how G7 members can foster innovation through international collaboration and, as first movers, lower the cost of technologies for other countries while maintaining electricity security and placing people at the centre of clean energy transitions.
Achieving Net Zero Heavy Industry Sectors in G7 Members is a new report by the International Energy Agency that focuses on the implementation of policies aimed at drastically lowering CO2 emissions from heavy industries in the G7 and beyond. This work, requested by Germany’s 2022 G7 Presidency, builds on analysis from the IEA’s Net Zero by 2050: A Roadmap for the Global Energy Sector. It follows Achieving Net Zero Electricity Sectors in G7 Members, produced as an input to the UK’s G7 Presidency in 2021.This report focuses on two key areas for achieving net zero heavy industry sectors in G7 members, both of which are priority areas for Germany’s 2022 G7 Presidency. The first is a toolbox of policies and financing mechanisms to initiate and sustain the industry sector transition. The second is a series of common and practicable definitions of what constitutes near zero emission steel and cement production, a key step to establishing future policy mechanisms, irrespective of the exact mitigation pathway or the specific technologies chosen. The report is designed to inform policy makers, material producers and consumers, investors, leading sectoral initiatives and the research community in the lead up to the G7 Climate and Energy Ministerial in May 2022, and beyond.
Climate policy raises a number of challenges for the energy sector, the most significant being the transition from a high to a low-CO2 energy path in a few decades. Act Locally, Trade Globally seeks to provide a complete picture of the future role of emissions trading in climate policy and the energy sector. It offers an overview of existing trading systems, their mechanisms, and looks into the future of the instrument for limiting greenhouse gas emissions.
The number of corporations announcing clean electricity pledges has increased substantially in recent years, with many companies setting specific goals to meet some or all of their electricity demand with clean supply. These goals can support new capacity in clean generation, helping to boost overall shares in power systems. Increasingly, clean electricity goals can be specified in different ways; this can have implications for the clean technologies procured, the amount and location of procurement, and the resulting emissions reduction. In some regions, corporates have a range of options to choose from when purchasing clean electricity; in other regions, legal and regulatory barriers still constrain engagement in corporate procurement.
This report examines the options available and the ways in which they contribute to decarbonisation and, ultimately, net zero electricity goals. Using the IEA’s regional power system models for India and Indonesia, the report applies quantitative analysis to examine the implications of different procurement strategies for emissions reduction, procurement costs and technology deployment. A key finding is that when companies set more granular goals – such as matching their electricity demand hourly (rather than annually as has been the dominant practice) – it can stimulate deployment of the wider portfolio of flexible technologies needed for net zero transitions in the power sector.
The report aims to guide corporates in choosing impactful ways to procure clean electricity. It also highlights the roles of policy makers, regulators, system operators and network owners and operators in increasing the availability and impact of corporate procurement options. The final chapter offers targeted recommendations for different stakeholder groups.
Today’s global energy crisis underscores the urgency and magnitude of the task of transforming Africa’s energy sector, as well as the benefits of an accelerated shift to more affordable and cleaner sources of energy.The Africa Energy Outlook 2022 is a new special report from the International Energy Agency’s World Energy Outlook series. It explores pathways for Africa’s energy system to evolve toward achieving all African development goals, including universal access to modern and affordable energy services by 2030 and nationally determined contributions.The report analyses infrastructure expansion needs, investment requirements, financing options and energy policy priorities. It also explores a shifting fuel mix that supports resilient development, opportunities for new exports, and just transition issues – including energy access, affordability and employment.
Air pollution has emerged as one of India’s gravest social and environmental problems in recent years. At the same time, the country is experiencing signs of a warming climate with potentially devastating effects in the long term. Energy-related fuel combustion is at the heart of both crises. It is a main source of three major air pollutants, NOX, SO2 and PM2.5, and the largest contributor to India’s CO2 emissions. In many locations, concentrations of particulate matter persistently exceed recommended national and international standards with severe implications for public health. In 2019 alone, India experienced an estimated 1.2 million air pollution-related premature deaths. At the same time, India’s growing economy is driving CO2 emissions, which increased by more than 55% in the last decade, and are expected to rise by 50% to 2040. Today’s energy choices matter for future development, as they have direct and far-reaching implications for the lives of a growing population. Energy-related air pollutants and CO2 emissions often arise from the same sources, therefore the adoption of an integrated approach to tackle both can deliver important co-benefits. This report shows that well designed, coherent policy packages can deliver such synergies if properly implemented. In order to demonstrate co-benefit potential, it provides quantitative analysis that presents the ways in which flagship energy policies can contribute to both air pollution reduction and climate change mitigation in tandem. Four key sectors are assessed for this purpose: captive power plants, industrial energy efficiency, road transport electrification and expanded access to clean cooking. Policy frameworks that accommodate these synergies will provide a more impactful response and deliver durable benefits to the most pressing national health and environmental challenges, while offering great potential for India’s contribution in the global fight against climate change.
This report produced in co-operation with the International Energy Agency (IEA), the International Transport Forum (ITF) and the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) identifies the misalignments between climate change objectives and policy and regulatory frameworks across a range of policy domains (investment, taxation, innovation and skills, trade, and adaptation) and activities at the heart of climate policy (electricity, urban mobility and rural land use).
Outside of countries’ core climate policies, many of the regulatory features of today’s economies have been built around the availability of fossil fuels and without any regard for the greenhouse gas emissions stemming from human activities. This report makes a diagnosis of these contradictions and points to means of solving them to support a more effective transition of all countries to a low-carbon economy.
Ammonia is the starting point for all mineral nitrogen fertilisers, forming a bridge between the nitrogen in the air and the food we eat. Around 70% of ammonia is used to make fertilisers, with the remainder used for a wide range of industrial applications, such as plastics, explosives and synthetic fibres. Ammonia may also serve as a low-carbon energy vector in the future, but that application is not considered within the core analytical scope of this technology roadmap. Ammonia production accounts for around 2% of total final energy consumption and 1.3% of CO2 emissions from the energy system. An increasingly numerous and affluent global population will lead to growth in ammonia production, during a period in which governments around the world have declared that emissions from the energy system must head towards net zero.
This technology roadmap uses scenario analysis to explore three possible futures for ammonia production. In the Stated Policies Scenario the industry follows current trends, making incremental improvements but falling well short of a sustainable trajectory. In the Sustainable Development Scenario the sector adopts the technologies and policies required to put it on a pathway aligned with the goals of the Paris Agreement. The Net Zero Emissions by 2050 Scenario describes a trajectory for the ammonia industry that is compatible with reaching net zero emissions globally for the energy system by 2050. The roadmap concludes with a chapter outlining the necessary roles and actions of key stakeholders, namely governments, producers, and financial and research institutions, and establishes milestones and decision points.
In September 2020, President Xi Jinping announced that the People’s Republic of China will “aim to have CO2 emissions peak before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060”. Amid the growing wave of governments around the world setting targets for reaching net zero emissions, no pledge is as significant as China’s. The country is the world’s largest energy consumer and carbon emitter, accounting for one-third of global CO2 emissions. The pace of China’s emissions reductions will be an important factor in global efforts to limit global warming to 1.5 °C.
This report, An Energy Sector Roadmap to Carbon Neutrality in China, responds to the Chinese government’s invitation to the International Energy Agency to cooperate on long-term strategies by setting out pathways for reaching carbon neutrality in China’s energy sector. It shows that achieving carbon neutrality fits with China’s broader development goals, such as increasing prosperity and shifting towards innovation-driven growth. The first pathway in this Roadmap – the Announced Pledges Scenario – reflects the enhanced targets China announced in 2020. The report also explores the implications of a faster transition – the Accelerated Transition Scenario – and the socio-economic benefits it would bring beyond those associated with reducing the impact of climate change.
This Roadmap examines the technology challenges and opportunities that this new phase of the clean energy transition will bring for China’s development, with a focus on long-term needs. The technology innovations required in the Chinese context are a key in-depth focus area. The report concludes with a series of policy considerations to inform China’s energy debate.
Indonesia is the world’s fourth-most populous country and is set to become the world’s fourth-largest economy by mid-century. The choices that Indonesia makes now and in the decades to come will have a significant bearing on the world’s energy markets and on international efforts to reach collective climate goals.
Indonesia, a member of the IEA family since 2015, has committed to reach net zero emissions by 2060 or before – an ambitious task given the country’s growth objectives and status as a globally important consumer and producer of coal. However, with a transition to net zero offering extensive and varied economic opportunities, Indonesia is beginning to put in place the policies and frameworks that can help reach this target while moving towards advanced economy status.
To assist in this critical task, the IEA – at the request of the Government of Indonesia and to coincide with Indonesia’s Presidency of the G20 – has developed a comprehensive roadmap to net zero by 2060 for the country, which charts a path for the country’s energy transition over the coming decades. The analysis in the Energy Sector Roadmap to Net Zero Emissions in Indonesia spans key areas such as people‑centred transitions, the phasing down of coal use, investment and financing needs, and critical minerals. It also sets out a high-ambition pathway in which Indonesia reaches net zero by 2050. The project has been conducted in close collaboration with the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources of the Republic of Indonesia.
Given the salient role that electricity plays in modern economies, the task of ensuring electricity security is a top priority for policy makers. The process is an extensive and complicated one that involves careful consideration of costs and benefits. This chapter summarises the steps involved in developing a framework for electricity security. It defines outages, describes approaches to assessing how much they cost, and outlines the institutional responsibilities to prevent and/or react to them. In doing so, it lays out the existing approaches available to policy makers and the challenges they face in creating electricity security frameworks, including clarifying the costs and benefits, establishing reliability planning structures, and assigning institutional responsibility for various tasks. It then previews how policy makers and other stakeholders need to adapt frameworks for electricity security in the face of major trends affecting the sector – namely, the clean energy transition, cyberthreats and climate change.
At the request of the Angolan government in 2005, the IEA conducted a survey of the Angolan energy sector and energy policies. This resulting report on Angola focuses on areas for priority action and hones in on energy subsectors likely to play the largest role in meeting domestic demand for modern energy services: notably electricity and oil products. As biomass currently plays an immense role in meeting the bulk of the energy needs of Angolan households, this sub-sector is also featured, with emphasis on improving the sustainability of this renewable energy source. This study offers a realistic update on Angola’s present day energy situation and identifies the main priorities which could form the basis of an effective overall energy strategy. It also provides lessons that could be applicable in many other developing countries.
This International Energy Agency (IEA) in-depth review of the energy policies of Armenia follows the same format as that used for the IEA peer reviews of member countries. This in-depth review of Armenia was conducted under the auspices of the EU4Energy programme, which is being implemented by the IEA and the European Union, along with the Energy Community Secretariat and the Energy Charter Secretariat.
Armenia depends on imports to meet much of its energy needs, particularly natural gas from the Russian Federation. It is one of the few ex-Soviet republics to avoid significant energy subsidies, and it is the only country in the Caucasus region to possess a nuclear power plant.
In January 2021, the government approved a new Energy Sector Development Strategic Programme that sets the path for the sector’s transition through 2040. Key government priorities include promoting maximum use of the country’s potential for renewable energy and energy efficiency; increasing power transmission links with Armenia’s neighbours; gradually liberalising the domestic electricity market; and maintaining and, possibly, increasing the role of nuclear power.
This report assesses the energy sector and related challenges facing Armenia and proposes policy recommendations to improve sector governance, energy efficiency, and security of supply.
The rapid advances of artificial intelligence (AI) in recent years have led to numerous creative applications in science. Accelerating the productivity of science could be the most economically and socially valuable of all the uses of AI. Utilising AI to accelerate scientific productivity will support the ability of OECD countries to grow, innovate and meet global challenges, from climate change to new contagions.
This publication is aimed at a broad readership, including policy makers, the public, and stakeholders in all areas of science. It is written in non-technical language and gathers the perspectives of prominent researchers and practitioners. The book examines various topics, including the current, emerging, and potential future uses of AI in science, where progress is needed to better serve scientific advancements, and changes in scientific productivity.
Additionally, it explores measures to expedite the integration of AI into research in developing countries.
A distinctive contribution is the book’s examination of policies for AI in science. Policy makers and actors across research systems can do much to deepen AI’s use in science, magnifying its positive effects, while adapting to the fast-changing implications of AI for research governance.
This paper explores different measures of energy efficiency performance (“MEEP”) and considers the importance of so-called boundary definitions when measuring energy performance, and how these affect the appropriateness of country comparisons to guide policy decisions.
The paper also addresses the limitations of both energy intensity and technology diffusion indicators as measures of energy efficiency performance. A case study on Japan’s iron and steel industry illustrates the critical role of proper boundary definitions for a meaningful assessment of energy efficiency in industry.
Since the IEA’s last review in 2018, Australia has significantly raised its climate ambitions, with the 2022 Climate Change Act doubling the target for emissions reductions by 2030 and setting the goal of reaching net zero emissions by 2050.
To match these increased ambitions, Australia is seeking to update its existing strategies, starting with the preparation of a new emissions reduction plan for 2050. Emission reductions and energy efficiency improvement rates need to double by 2030, and further steps will be required to achieve the government’s clean electricity target. Such efforts would support both climate and energy security goals.
To support its clean energy transition, Australia needs to strengthen its resilience to supply disruptions across all fuels, whether from climate change impacts or global energy price shocks. Flexibility, fuel availability and resilient infrastructure will become even more vital as Australia’s energy system incorporates very high shares of variable renewables and is likely to face more frequent and more extreme weather events. Gas market reforms can help ensure energy security during the transition.
In this report, the IEA provides energy policy recommendations to help Australia effectively manage the transformation of its energy sector in line with its goals.