The IEA warns: the energy transition is too slow.

While President Emmanuel Macron urged France and its economic players , in his France 2030 plan, to redouble its efforts to develop less CO²-emitting energies, the International Energy Agency is worried that the energy transition is too slow.

Indeed, the agency feels "a double penalty: if it does not invest more massively and quickly in clean energies, the world will suffer from global warming, but also from" supply turbulence " , Wednesday, October 13 , the IAE expressed its deep concern and issued "serious warnings to the direction the world is taking" in its annual report published two weeks before the opening of the UN COP26 in Glasgow. "The transition is too slow" .

Batteries, hydrogen , electric vehicles ... All these sectors are countered by "the resistance of the status quo and fossil fuels", while oil, gas and coal still account for 80% of final energy consumption, generating three quarters of the climate change, according to the report.

The director of the IEA, Fatih Birol, calls on the leaders at COP26 to " do their part by making the 2020s the decade of the massive deployment of carbon-free energies" . He assures us: "a new energy economy is emerging, with the potential to create millions of jobs" . However, "we are not investing enough to meet future needs, and these uncertainties are preparing us for a volatile period. The way to respond is clear: invest massively and quickly in clean energy." According to him, investments in low-carbon energy projects will have to triple within ten years, for carbon neutrality by 2050; thus going in the direction of what the French president recommended.

In the rest of the world, the IAE recalls the significant role that the Covid crisis has played. Indeed, the latter halted progress in electrification, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. The financing of emerging countries is a key issue, when they must equip themselves while avoiding in particular coal-fired power stations. However, the additional funding required "is less heavy than it seems" , she adds: 40% of emissions reductions "pay for themselves" , through energy efficiency, the fight against methane leaks or solar or wind farms where these technologies are already the most competitive, writes the IEA.

With regard to controlling the rise in temperatures to the level required by the Paris Agreement, the IEA warns that this "will require major efforts but offers considerable benefits for health such as economic development" , while the current general investment deficit affects not only the climate but also prices and supply. The objective is to contain a sharp rise in the price of energy at a time when there is an effervescence around this sector around the world.

Without this global strategic shift, "the risk of destabilizing volatility will only increase over time" , adds the report, which stresses the importance of a transition "affordable for all citizens" .