The International Energy Agency (IEA) called on Wednesday for governments to diversify supplies and increase cooperation as global need for energy continues to grow.
The Paris-based agency warned of “pressing energy security threats and growing longer-term risks across an unprecedented range of fuels and technologies” as it released its flagship World Energy Outlook.
The outlook highlights that, while renewable energies were deployed at record rates for a 23rd consecutive year in 2024, traditional sources of energy like oil, natural gas and coal also hit all-time highs.
“When we look at the history of the energy world in recent decades, there is no other time when energy security tensions have applied to so many fuels and technologies at once,” said IEA head Fatih Birol.
“With energy security front and centre for many governments, their responses need to consider the synergies and trade-offs that can arise with other policy goals – on affordability, access, competitiveness and climate change.”
Climate risks on the rise
The report presents three scenarios – “none of which is a forecast,” the agency stresses – based the latest data on policies, technologies and markets and aided by modelling.
In all three scenarios – the Current Policies Scenario (CPS), the Stated Policies Scenario (STEPS) and the Net Zero Emissions by 2050 (NZE) Scenario – the world is projected to surpass the threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
The NZE scenario, however, would see temperatures drop back down below the 1.5-degree threshold in the long term, the agency said.
It insisted that, while the energy sector must be set up to deal with the security risks brought by higher temperatures, “there is still scope to avoid the worst climate outcomes.”
