'[Authorities] want to be convinced that those policies accelerating clean energy transitions would also help economic recovery.' Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency, on clean energy technologies
In this file photo, Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency, poses for a portrait at the agency's offices in Paris, France, November 7, 2019.
"I believe there is an opportunity — and I call it an historic opportunity here," Birol, an economist who took the helm of the Paris-based IEA in 2015, told Reuters. Birol wants governments to broaden support for well-established paths to reducing carbon emissions, such as embracing greater energy efficiency and expanding renewable energy to create jobs and serve climate goals.
Birol singled out lithium ion batteries and the use of electrolysis to produce hydrogen from water as two technologies poised for rapid take-off. Although rollouts of cleaner technologies will be needed to meet energy demand, climate scientists say that the world must also reverse plans to expand oil, gas and coal production to stand a chance of avoiding catastrophic climate change.
Last year climate scientists, campaigners and the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change, which comprises pension funds and insurers managing more than 30 trillion euros in assets, wrote letters to the IEA to ask it to produce more ambitious decarbonisation pathways to boost climate-friendly investment.
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