The International Renewable Energy Agency said in its annual flagship report that $131-trillion investments in clean energy are required by 2050 to achieve climate targets under the 2015 Paris climate accord. This means that governments and companies need to increase their current planned clean energy investments by 30% to limit the global temperature increase at 1.5 degrees Celsius.
The Abu Dhabi-based agency also highlighted the importance of a drastic acceleration to scale up hydrogen and renewable energy projects. It added that fossil fuel consumption must drop by over 75% by 2050, with oil and coal falling more quickly. Natural gas demand would have to peak in 2025, although it would be the most-used fossil fuel by 2050. Meanwhile, renewable power capacity will have to increase by ten-fold or more by 2050, accompanied by a 30-fold increase in electric mobility, the study found.
The report also expects drastic growth in the production and use of “green hydrogen,” carbon-free hydrogen produced by electrolysis using renewable power to extract hydrogen from water. Production of green hydrogen and its derivatives, including e-methanol and e-ammonia, is expected to account for 30% of electricity use by 2050, the report said. To achieve such a scale, global electrolysis capacity will need to expand from 0.3 GW today to nearly 5,000 GW in 2020.
