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The market structure and trends for the Asian liquefied natural gas (LNG) market have evolved dramatically since this fuel was introduced in the late 1960s. While traditional markets such as Japan or Korea have held their position as the largest consumers in the region, their domestic markets have changed under the influence of liberalisation policies, which have led to different stages of market opening.

In parallel, the emergence of fast-growing LNG importers such as the People’s Republic of China has led to substantial market growth, which has coincided with more diversification on the supply side. Such an evolution in the contractual structure has had implications for price formation towards more diversity in indexation and more cross-influences between regional markets.

Latin America and the Caribbean is a region that stands out in the global energy sector. It boasts extraordinary natural resources – both fossil fuels and renewable energy – and a significant share of the world’s critical minerals. It also has a history of ambitious policy making in pursuit of stronger energy security and greater sustainability that has delivered one of the cleanest electricity mixes in the world. As the region emerges from a period of sluggish economic growth, countries in Latin America and the Caribbean now stand to leverage these resources to revitalise their economies and improve the security and sustainability of energy around the world.

The Latin America Energy Outlook, the International Energy Agency’s first in-depth and comprehensive assessment of Latin America and the Caribbean, builds on decades of collaboration with partners. In support of the region's energy goals, the report explores the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead. It provides insights on the ways in which the outlook for the region and the biggest global energy trends are deeply intertwined – as well as recommendations on policies that could allow Latin America and the Caribbean to take full advantage of its great potential.

CO2 emissions from energy production and consumption are a major contributor to climate change.  Thus, stabilising CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere by reducing these emissions is an increasingly urgent international necessity.  Carbon capture and storage (CCS) represents one of the most promising potential solutions to contain emissions resulting from continued use of coal and other fossil fuels.  However, challenges such as a lack of legal and regulatory frameworks to guide near-term demonstration projects and long-term technology expansion must be addressed to facilitate the expanded use of CCS. 

 

In October 2006, the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum (CSLF) convened with legal experts,to discuss the range of legal issues associated with expanded use of CCS and to identify ways to facilitate further CCS development and implementation  Participants examined gaps and barriers to the deployment of CCS and identified recommendations to guide further development of appropriate legal and regulatory frameworks. 

 

This publication provides policymakers with a detailed summary of the main legal issues surrounding the CCS debate, including up-to-date background information, case studies and conclusions on the best legal and regulatory approaches to advance CCS.  These strategies can be used to enable further development, deployment and demonstration of CCS technology, potentially an essential element in global efforts to mitigate climate change. 

Carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) technologies are set to play an important role in putting the global energy system on a path to net zero. Successfully deploying CCUS relies on the establishment of legal and regulatory frameworks to ensure the effective stewardship of CCUS activities and the safe and secure storage of CO2.

Several countries have already developed comprehensive legal and regulatory frameworks for CCUS. These form a valuable knowledge base for the growing number of countries that have identified a role for CCUS in meeting their climate goals, but which are yet to establish a legal foundation for CCUS, and particularly for CO2 storage. Increasingly, existing frameworks are also being tested as more commercial CCUS projects are developed, with important learnings for regulators.

This IEA CCUS Handbook is a resource for policy makers and regulators on establishing and updating legal and regulatory frameworks for CCUS. It identifies 25 priority issues that frameworks should address for CCUS deployment, presenting global case studies and examining how different jurisdictions have approached these issues. The handbook is supported by a webbased legal and regulatory database, and model legislative text that is found at the end of this report.

As the global energy transition accelerates, all energy sectors will experience significant transformations, affecting how energy is produced and consumed. This implies a changing role of hydrocarbon fuels such as oil and natural gas. While these fuels will continue to play a role in energy systems, notably in large energy demand centres, all scenarios point to a gradual decline in demand for both oil and gas. As a result, producer economies such as Oman, whose economic development has been to a significant part enabled by a thriving oil and gas industry, have been exploring opportunities to adapt their economic model to the emerging energy economy we are observing.

Nevertheless, it remains important to appreciate the role producer economies play in the global energy transition. While this transformation involves a wide range of challenges to secure future revenues and employment opportunities for citizens, the energy transition also holds with it a range of opportunities. Oman's assets, infrastructure, and skills were once developed in the service of an omnipresent oil and gas industry. Today, the objective of this study is to lay out the opportunities of repurposing these advantages in the services in developing clean energy supply chains in Oman, led by solar PV, wind and low-emission hydrogen where significant economic value is expected to lie as the global economy decarbonises.

India, the Lifestyle for Environment (LiFE) initiative aims to encourage the adoption of sustainable lifestyles in India and internationally to tackle the challenges of environmental degradation and climate change.

This report examines how India has integrated several policies in its energy transition strategy that are aligned with the LiFE initiative, highlighting the potential for behavioural change and consumption choices to help advance energy transitions globally.

It then analyses the impact on energy consumption, costs and emissions of measures like those proposed by the LiFE initiative, such as buying an EV or taking public transport, if they were adopted globally.

Finally, it considers how India’s first G20 Presidency could strengthen the LiFE initiative by anchoring it in the G20’s current framing of energy transitions and initiating processes to gather experience and best practices of policies and programmes that G20 members are already conducting.

When William Shakespeare wrote Love’s Labour’s Lost he would have used light from tallow candles at a cost (today) of £12,000 per million-lumen hours. The same amount of light from electric lamps now costs only £2!  But today’s low-cost illumination still has a dark side. Globally, lighting consumes more electricity than is produced by either hydro or nuclear power and results in CO2 emissions equivalent to two thirds of the world’s cars. This book documents a broad range of policy measures to stimulate efficient lighting being implemented around the world and suggests new ways these could be strengthened to prevent light’s labour from being lost.

 

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 kind of clean energy leadership can drive emissions reductions up to 2050.

In this report, the IEA provides energy policy recommendations to help Lithuania accelerate its energy transition towards its ambitious 2050 targets for climate neutrality.

The cement sector is the third-largest industrial energy consumer and the second-largest industrial CO2 emitter globally. Rising global population and urbanisation patterns, coupled with infrastructure development needs, drive up the demand for cement and concrete and increase pressure to accelerate action in reducing the carbon footprint of cement production.

Under a scenario that considers announced carbon mitigation commitments and energy efficiency targets by countries, the cement sector would increase its direct CO2 emissions just 4% globally by 2050, for an expected growth of 12% in cement production over the same period. However, more ambitious action would be needed to achieve global climate goals.

This Technology Roadmap builds on the long-standing collaboration of the IEA with the Cement Sustainability Initiative (CSI) of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD). It provides an update of the Cement Technology Roadmap 2009: Carbon Emissions Reductions up to 2050, and sets a strategy for the cement sector to achieve the decoupling of cement production growth from related direct CO2 emissions through improving energy efficiency, switching to fuels that are less carbon intensive, reducing the clinker to cement ratio, and implementing emerging and innovative technologies such as carbon capture. The report therefore outlines a detailed action plan for specific stakeholders to 2050 as a reference and a source of inspiration for international and national policy makers to support evidence-based decisions and regulations.

The IEA regularly conducts in-depth peer reviews of the energy policies of its member countries. This process supports energy policy development and encourages the exchange of best practices and experiences.

Luxembourg experienced strong economic and population growth between 2008 and 2018. For most of that decade, energy demand and carbon dioxide emissions fell significantly, but they started to increase again in 2016. The government has adopted ambitious energy sector targets, including a 50-55% reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. Luxembourg faces challenges achieving those targets. Low energy prices for consumers are creating a barrier to the investments needed in energy efficiency and renewables. And the country has a fossil fuel-intensive energy mix driven by a high demand for transportation fuels, notably from transiting freight trucks.

Luxembourg is embedded in the European electricity market, a sector that is transforming swiftly as rising shares of variable renewable generation, such as wind and solar PV, put increased attention on security of supply. In this context, Luxembourg plans to expand and upgrade its electricity grids, but the country would benefit further from the deployment of measures to increase energy storage and demand-side response in its power system. It is also important to ensure competitive markets that foster innovation and new energy services.

In this report, the IEA provides a range of energy policy recommendations to help Luxembourg smoothly manage the transition to a smart, flexible and sustainable energy system.