IEA's Fatih Birol Highlights Challenges In Global Clean Energy Transition

(MENAFN- Trend News Agency) BAKU, Azerbaijan, January 23. Executive Director of the International Energy Agency (IEA) Fatih Birol discussed the challenges and opportunities in the global clean energy transition during the panel discussions "All Hands on Deck for the Energy Transition" at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Trend reports.

"Our current estimate is, with the projects which have their FIDs, we are going to see 2.7 times increase of renewables, which is not bad, and we can even accelerate this and come to that level. Second, in terms of energy efficiency, this is the problem, because doubling means doubling from what? So global energy efficiency was about 2% per year increase. Doubling would have meant 4% efficiency improvement each year, but 2024, global energy efficiency improvement was even below the historical average. It was 1%. So this is a problematic area," Birol stated.

He emphasized the significant challenges facing the clean energy transition globally. "So this is where we are, and if you ask me, there are many challenges in front of the clean energy transition globally, many of them. If I have to pick up one of them, and I'm a man who makes his hands dirty with data, I can tell you the fault line is the following. We have today $2 trillion clean energy investments, and 10 years ago it was $1 trillion, big growth from $1 trillion to $2 trillion. This is the problem. Of this $2 trillion, 85% of this clean energy investment takes place in the advanced economies in China. 15% takes place in the countries where you have the 60% of global population."

Birol highlighted the disparity in clean energy investments between regions. "I don't know if I gave too many numbers, but 15% of the clean energy investments are happening in the 60% global population, which is Africa, Latin America, Asia, and so on. So how are we going to make sure that the clean energy investments and the projects in these countries are going to meet? This is the fault line of, for me, the biggest problem. And between those three regions, there are all challenges, but Africa is the main problem, the main challenge," he concluded.

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