Path to 1.5 °C has narrowed, but still open

The International Energy Agency (IEA) has released an update to its 2021 Net Zero Roadmap, which provides guidance to the global energy sector on how to help slow the pace of global warming. The 2021 roadmap sketched out a possible pathway for the energy sector to achieve net zero CO2 emissions by 2050, while also acknowledging that this was only one of many potential paths towards the same goal. In this update, the IEA warns that the paths have now narrowed. but with rapid and substantive action, it should still be possible to achieve this goal.

The IEA claims that the growth in clean energy initiatives have been a positive development, with solar energy and electric vehicle sales achieving the milestones set for them. However, it is still necessary to substantially increase renewable energy, improve energy efficiency, and decrease methane emissions to have any hope of achieving the net zero target by 2050.

The full IEA 2023 update is available here.