Nearly 100 experts from around the world gathered in April to advise the IEA on how renewable energy can best be used to fight climate change, improve energy security, and reduce local air pollution.
The International Energy Agency hosted nearly 100 experts from around the world, representing governments, industry, academia, financial institutions, and civil groups, on April 29, to advise “on how best to leverage renewable energy to fight against climate change, improve energy security, and reduce local air pollution.” The results of the gathering will be an in-depth feature to be included in the IEA’s flagship publication, the World Energy Outlook 2016, which is due to be released in November. Specifically, the in-depth feature is intended to inform policy makers about both the challenges and the opportunities of renewable electricity generation.
The gathering was moderated by Kamel Ben Naceur, IEA’s Director of Sustainability, Technology and Outlooks, with attendees presenting and debating government policies that would support the deployment of renewable energy.
“Only a week ago, 175 nations signed the historic Paris Agreement with a common objective to hold the increase in global temperature this century to well below 2 degrees Celsius,” said IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol at the gathering as reported by Cleantechnica.
“Impressive cost declines place renewable energy at the forefront to step up efforts to decarbonise the energy sector, provide electricity access to millions currently deprived, fight local pollution and create 21st century interconnected energy systems. The World Energy Outlook has long seen renewables providing the lion’s share of new electricity generation. However, we must go beyond current and proposed policies – we need to advise policy makers on how to massively scale up renewables in order to achieve our common climate and development goals.”
Participants at the IEA gathering helped the authors behind the World Energy Outlook 2016 identify policies and measures that can be used to accelerate renewable energy deployment.