NEW YORK: The goal of peaking greenhouse gas emissions to combat climate change could be achieved as early as 2020 with very little economic pain and no new technological fixes, according to a new report released Monday.
The report, from the International Energy Agency (IEA), an international organization promoting affordable and sustainable energy solutions, suggests tackling the emissions mostly from the burning of fossil fuels could be done with five changes in the energy sector – some of them under way and others that have long been resisted especially in the developing world.
It calls for increasing energy efficiency in the industry, buildings and transport sectors; reducing the use of the least-efficient coal-fired power plants and banning their construction; increasing investment in renewable energy technologies in the power sector from $270 billion in 2014 to $400 billion in 2030; gradually phasing out of fossil-fuel subsidies to end-users by 2030; and reducing methane emissions in oil and gas production.
The report comes just a few months before global leaders are set to descend on Paris to negotiate a new climate treaty. Set to take effect in 2020, an agreement at COP21 would be the first where both rich and poor countries pledge to limit their emissions of greenhouse gases that scientists say are raising global temperatures.
The goal is to keep temperatures below 2 degrees C (3.6 degrees F) over what they were in pre-industrial times. To do that, the IEA said world leaders must tackle emissions from the energy sector, which are double all other sources.
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