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Hydrogen and energy have a long shared history – powering the first internal combustion engines over 200 years ago to becoming an integral part of the modern refining industry. It is light, storable, energy-dense, and produces no direct emissions of pollutants or greenhouse gases. But for hydrogen to make a significant contribution to clean energy transitions, it needs to be adopted in sectors where it is almost completely absent, such as transport, buildings and power generation.
The Future of Hydrogen provides an extensive and independent survey of hydrogen that lays out where things stand now; the ways in which hydrogen can help to achieve a clean, secure and affordable energy future; and how we can go about realising its potential.
Natural gas demand grew at a remarkable clip last year, increasing by 4.6%, its highest growth rate since the beginning of the decade. Future growth will be more measured, supported by economic expansion in emerging markets – especially in Asia – and sustained policy support in the People’s Republic of China to battle air pollution.
The supplies to meet that new growth will come from both new domestic production in these fast-growing economies but also increasingly from major exporting countries, led by the development of the abundant shale gas resources in the United States. International trade, supported by the strong growth in liquefied natural gas export capacity, will play a growing role in the development of natural gas markets as they move further towards globalisation. The recent convergence in market prices in major regions provides an indication of this increasing integration. However, establishing market-driven pricing mechanisms in fast-growing countries remains a challenge – albeit one that is being addressed by pricing reforms in several leading emerging economies around the world.
This report investigates how tax revenue from transport fuels could evolve over time as vehicles rely less on fossil fuels, with a focus on the case study of the Republic of Slovenia. Reducing the reliance on fossil fuels in the transport sector is a welcome development from the perspective of its climate and health impacts and of reduced energy dependence. However, under current settings, reduced fuel use will also lead to a loss of tax revenues, which may put stress on government budgets. Based on simulations for Slovenia, with a 2050 horizon, the report provides an in-depth assessment of the taxation of road transport and investigates how tax policy could adapt to declining fossil fuel use in the long term if the objective is to maintain revenues at current levels while taking fairness and efficiency considerations into account. It finds that gradual tax reforms, with an evolving mix of taxes, shifting from taxes on fuel to taxes on distances driven, can contribute to more sustainable tax policy over the long term.
The International Energy Agency’s annual benchmark for tracking energy investment, World Energy Investment 2019 provides a full picture of today’s capital flows and what they might mean for tomorrow’s energy sector. It assesses whether the frameworks and strategies put in place by governments, the energy industry, and financial institutions are spurring timely investment, and how spending across sectors and technologies matches with the world’s energy security and sustainability needs.
This year’s edition looks at trends in investment and financing in 2018 across all areas of energy supply, efficiency, and research & development, key markets and sectors driving these trends, from electricity in Asia to fuel supply in North America, as well as the sectors and regions where energy capital flows are constrained. The analysis also examines how industry is responding to investment risks and opportunities, including through shorter-cycle oil and gas projects, financial risk management strategies for renewable power, financing models for energy efficiency, and in capital allocation decisions across sectors. And it looks at the implications of today’s trends, such as whether investment is sufficient to satisfy the world’s growing demand for energy, and whether enough capital is going into energy efficiency, renewable energy, and other low-carbon technologies to accelerate the pace of global energy transitions.
Cette publication examine les risques associés au rejet d'azote en excès dans l'environnement (changement climatique, appauvrissement de la couche d'ozone, pollution de l'air, pollution de l'eau, perte de biodiversité, détérioration de la qualité des sols). Le rapport examine également l'incertitude associée à la capacité de l'azote de passer d'un écosystème à un autre et de provoquer des « effets en cascade ». Outre une meilleure gestion des risques liés à l'azote au niveau local, il faut considérer les risques au niveau global liés à l’augmentation continue des concentrations d’hémioxyde d’azote et prévenir l’excès d’azote sous toutes ses formes en élaborant des stratégies efficaces au regard de leurs coûts pour toutes les sources. La publication fournit des indications sur l’utilisation des instruments de politique relative à l’azote et sur la manière d’assurer la cohérence avec des objectifs tels que la sécurité alimentaire, la sécurité énergétique et les objectifs environnementaux autres que la réduction de la pollution par l’azote.
Iraq's Energy Sector: A Roadmap to a Brighter Future is the International Energy Agency’s first in-depth analysis of the country’s energy sector since 2012. It examines the problems affecting Iraq’s power sector and offers recommendations for how to address the situation, including the potential role of renewables. It also takes a detailed look at the country’s oil and gas industry and its prospects for the next decade.
The People’s Republic of China (“China”) has become one of the major providers of capital, construction services, and equipment to the energy sectors of developing and emerging economies. It has contributed to the power systems as well as the oil and gas sectors in the countries of these regions. Chinese energy and energy infrastructure companies, largely state-owned, are active across the energy sector in most fuels and through diverse modalities.
This report analyses the construction services, equipment, and investments provided by Chinese energy and energy infrastructure companies in the power, coal, oil, and gas sectors in non-OECD emerging Asian countries. It uses an integrated approach to provide a fact-based quantitative overview across the energy sector that complements existing research efforts. It identifies the main Chinese stakeholders, highlights major trends, and analyses strategies and drivers.
Findings reveal that, while the construction services, equipment and investments provided by Chinese companies are significant, they supply only part of emerging Asian economies’ energy sector needs; their role remains relatively modest compared to those of other companies.
Sweden is leading the way towards a low-carbon society. In recent years, the country has adopted an energy and climate framework with ambitious long‑term and interim goals, including a target of 100% renewable energy in electricity generation by 2040. In this review of Sweden’s energy policies, the International Energy Agency (IEA) looks at how the country is managing its energy transition, as well as how this transition affects energy security.
Sweden’s electricity system – based on nuclear, hydro and a growing share of wind power – is nearly fossil‑free. The country, which is well interconnected with its neighbours, has become a large net exporter of electricity. However, the power sector faces uncertainty from the likely phase‑out of nuclear within the next few decades. The challenge will be to maintain stability while more variable forms of renewable energy enter the system to replace nuclear power.
Sweden’s energy policies give preference to technology‑neutral measures and market mechanisms, with the aim to reduce emissions in a cost‑effective way. Carbon taxation in particular has been an effective driver of decarbonisation, and Sweden has showed that high environmental taxes can be combined with sustained economic growth. As the electricity and heat supply is largely decarbonised, the main challenge for Sweden is to reduce emissions in the transport sector, which gets special attention in the review.
In this report, the IEA provides recommendations for further improvements of Sweden’s energy policy to help the country continue to transform its energy sectors in a secure, affordable and environmentally sustainable manner.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) has conducted in-depth peer reviews of the energy policies of its member countries since 1976. This process supports energy policy development and encourages the exchange of international best practices and experiences. This report on Ireland discusses the challenges faced as well as possible solutions to help the country’s energy sector continue towards a secure and sustainable future.
Despite making substantial advances to transform its energy sector, Ireland is not on course to meet its 2020 greenhouse gas emissions reduction target. The decarbonisation of heating in buildings, one focus of this report, is a particular challenge.
In a more positive development, wind power accounted for around one-quarter of total generation in 2017 – the third-highest share of all IEA member countries. Additionally, this report suggests that Ireland has considerable scope to further advance alternative means of transport and public transport infrastructure, especially in urban areas.
In this report, the IEA provides recommendations for further improvements of Ireland’s energy policy to help the country continue to transform its energy sectors in order to meet the emissions reduction target for 2030.
Critical infrastructures are the backbone of modern, interconnected economies. The disruption of key systems and essential services - such as telecommunications, energy or water supply, transportation or finance - can cause substantial economic damage. This report looks at how to boost critical infrastructure resilience in a dynamic risk landscape, and discusses policy options and governance models to promote up-front resilience investments. Based on an international survey, the report analyses the progressive shift of critical infrastructure policies from asset protection to system resilience. The findings are reflected in a proposed Policy Toolkit for the Governance of Critical Infrastructure Resilience, which can guide governments in taking a more coherent, preventive approach to protecting and sustaining essential services.
As behavioural insights (BI) become more widely used, countries are looking to expand the application of the methodology to new frontiers of policy making. This report tests behaviourally informed solutions to complex policy problems in the fields of competition, consumer protection, energy consumption and safety through a variety of theoretical and experimental approaches. The results give policy makers new ideas for tackling policy problems related to individual behaviour, as well as for changing the behaviour of organisations.
Materials are the building blocks of society, making up the buildings, infrastructure, equipment and goods that enable businesses and people to carry out their daily activities. Economic development has historically coincided with increasing demand for materials, resulting in growing energy consumption and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from materials production. Clean energy transitions must decouple these trends. Material efficiency strategies can contribute to CO2 emissions reduction throughout value chains. Despite being an often overlooked emissions mitigation lever, opportunities for material efficiency exist at each lifecycle stage, from design and fabrication, through use and finally to end of life. Pushing these strategies to their practical yet achievable limits could enable considerable reductions in the demand for several key materials. Conversely, the demand for some materials may moderately increase while delivering favourable emissions benefits at other points in the value chain. As a result, improved material efficiency can reduce some of the deployment needs for other CO2 emissions mitigation options while achieving the same emissions reduction, thus contributing to clean energy transitions. This analysis examines the potential for material efficiency and the resulting energy and emissions impact for key energy-intensive materials: steel, cement and aluminium. It includes deep dives on the buildings construction and vehicles value chains, and outlines key policy and stakeholder actions to improve material efficiency. Important actions include: increasing material use data collection and benchmarking; improving consideration of the life-cycle impact in climate regulations and at the design stage; and promoting repurposing, reuse and recycling at end of product and buildings lifetimes.
Natural resources, and the materials derived from them, represent the physical basis for the economic system. Recent decades have witnessed an unprecedented growth in demand for these resources, which has triggered interest from policy makers in transitioning to a more resource efficient and circular economy. This report presents a typology of five circular business models that could support the transition to a more resource efficient and circular economy: circular supply, resource recovery, product life extension, sharing, and product service system models. It reviews the current market penetration and assesses the potential scalability of each business model. Environmental potential is also discussed, as well as risks and unintended consequences that could result from a more widespread adoption of these business models. The report provides a broad set of policy approaches that could help alleviate some of the barriers that currently hinder the widespread adoption of circular business models.
As “market referees”, regulators contribute to the delivery of essential public utilities. Their organisational culture, behaviour and governance are important factors in how regulators, and the sectors they oversee, perform. The report uses the OECD Performance Assessment Framework for Economic Regulators to assess both the internal and external governance of Peru's Energy and Mining Regulator (Osinergmin). The review discusses Osinergmin's achievements and good practices, analyses the key drivers of its performance, and proposes an integrated reform package to help the regulator prepare for the future.
Como "árbitros de mercado", los órganismos reguladores contribuyen a la prestación de servicios públicos esenciales. Su cultura organizacional, comportamiento y gobernanza son factores importantes para determinar su desempeño y el de los sectores regulados. El Marco para la Evaluación del Desempeño de los Reguladores Económicos de la OCDE (PAFER, por sus siglas en inglés), evalúa las instituciones, procesos y prácticas que pueden crear una cultura organizacional de desempeño y resultados. Este informe aplica el PAFER para examinar elementos relacionados con la gobernanza interna y externa del Organismo Supervisor de la Inversión en Energía y Minería (Osinergmin). El informe identifica los logros y buenas prácticas del regulador desde su creación. Asimismo, analiza los factores clave del desempeño de Osinergmin y propone una reforme integral para ayudar al regulador a prepararse para el futuro.
India’s rooftop solar targets represent a major opportunity for sustainable development and for women’s employment. While India has shown a strong commitment towards a clean energy transition through its renewable electricity installation target for 2022, deployment of rooftop solar technology has been slow. With the potential to create a large number of jobs in general, the rooftop solar sector also generates the types of jobs attractive to highly skilled women in particular, a largely untapped pool in India.
Our analysis, based on a survey of rooftop solar companies as well as qualitative interviews with women currently employed in the sector, seeks to identify opportunities for better gender balance at work, as well as barriers to achieving it. Women currently account for only 11% of the workforce in the companies we surveyed. Participation of women is particularly low in roles involving frequent travel and a required onsite presence at project sites.
We recommend that the government enhance policies to scale up the rooftop solar market by addressing the general challenges facing this sector, and introduce gender-targeted policies to enable and encourage companies to advance actions that effectively support women’s employment in this sector.
China Power System Transformation has a two-fold objective. First, it provides a summary of the state of play of power system transformation (PST) in the People’s Republic of China (“China”) as well as a comprehensive discussion of PST internationally. This includes a comprehensive review of all possible sources of power system flexibility (power plants, grid infrastructure, storage, and demand-side response) and a detailed discussion of market, policy, and regulatory frameworks to effectively mobilise power system flexibility. Second, it presents findings from a detailed power sector modelling exercise for China in 2035, building on the 2018 World Energy Outlook New Policies and Sustainable Development Scenarios. The modelling identifies the establishment of spot markets and trade between provinces as two of the main elements to improve system operation efficiency in China. In order to integrate very high shares of variable renewables consistent with the WEO SDS, activating the demand side – especially electric vehicles – and targeted use of electricity storage are found to be crucial for an accelerated transformation of the Chinese power system.
Oil 2019, the International Energy Agency’s annual outlook for global oil markets, examines the key issues in demand, supply, refining and trade to 2024. This year, the report covers the following themes:
- A changed supply picture led by the rise of the United States inworld markets thanks to rapidly-growing shale oil production, asit becomes a net exporter of crude oil and products.
- Supply growth in the non-OPEC world, including Brazil, Canada,Norway and Guyana; and a falling capacity for the OPECproducers.
- Demand growth underpinned by China and India and by thegrowing importance of petrochemicals as the industry invests tomeet rising consumer demand.
- And a detailed analysis of how the refining industry is grapplingwith the International Maritime Organisation’s new marine fuelrules, growing excess capacity, and the changing patterns ofglobal oil trade.
This report presents global projections of materials use and their environmental consequences, providing a quantitative outlook to 2060 at the global, sectoral and regional levels for 61 different materials (biomass resources, fossil fuels, metals and non-metallic minerals). It explains the economic drivers determining the decoupling of economic growth and materials use, and assesses how the projected shifts in sectoral and regional economic activity influence the use of different materials. The projections include both primary and secondary materials, which provides a deeper understanding of what drives the synergies and trade-offs between extraction and recycling.
The report projects a doubling of global primary materials use between today and 2060. Population and converging per capita income growth drive the growth in materials use. However, structural change, especially in non-OECD countries, and technology improvements partially dampen that growth. Metals and non-metallic minerals are projected to grow more rapidly than other types of materials.
Global demand for transport is growing fast. On present trends, passenger and freight activity will more than double by 2050.
Such growth is a token of social and economic progress. But it carries with it growth in energy demand and in emissions of CO2 and atmospheric pollutants.
Greater reliance on rail can cut that growth. The world is becoming ever more urbanised and rail travel is well matched to urban needs.
High-speed rail can serve as an alternative to short-distance air travel. Conventional and freight rail can complement other transport modes to provide efficient mobility.
This book shows what can be done and how. Its scale is global, with a special focus on the needs and opportunities in India.