Coal power must be addressed to achieve Paris climate targets, IEA head says in Berlin

As global CO₂ emissions are predicted to reach a historic high in 2018, “there is a growing and worrying disconnect between climate targets and what is happening in the real energy markets,” said Fatih Birol, head of the International Energy Agency. Presenting the IEA's 2018 World Energy Outlook in Berlin, he added that reducing global coal power generation was among the most important, but also the most difficult, measure as a large fleet of new or planned plants were located in emerging economies in South East Asia. The only solution was therefore to intervene in the existing coal plant fleet, and support carbon capture storage and utilisation (CCUS), efficient operations and technology innovation. Germany’s plans for a coal exit were important to the global discussion about fossil fuel phase-outs because the country was a role model, Birol said. Its Energiewende (energy transition) provided a substantial amount of inspiration to many countries around the world.

Find a summary and slides on the World Energy Outlook 2018 here.