No new investment in fossil fuels

 From The Guardian

Exploitation and development of new oil and gas fields must stop this year and no new coal-fired power stations can be built if the world is to stay within safe limits of global heating and meet the goal of net zero emissions by 2050, the world’s leading energy organisation has said.

In its strongest warning yet on the need to drastically scale back fossil fuels, the International Energy Agency (IEA) also called for no new fossil-fuel cars to be sold beyond 2035, and for global investment in energy to more than double from $2tn (£1.42tn) a year to $5tn (£3.54tn) The result would not be an economic burden, as some have claimed, but a net benefit to the economy.

Fatih Birol, the IEA’s executive director and one of the world’s foremost energy economists, told the Guardian: “If governments are serious about the climate crisis, there can be no new investments in oil, gas and coal, from now – from this year.”

He said strong new policies were needed from governments around the world: “More and more countries are coming up with net zero commitments, which is very good, but I see a huge and growing gap between the rhetoric [from governments] and the reality.”

To halve the decade-by-decade increase in global temperatures from its current 0.2 degrees, we need to halve emissions.  Renewables are cheaper than the operating cost of coal power, and battery pack costs continue to decline.  So we can do it.  

These are the key steps on that road:

1. No new coal power stations, anywhere, ever again. Starting now.
2. No new gas hot water heaters, starting as soon as possible
3. No new petrol/diesel car sales from 2030.  I believe that EV prices will fall far enough that this will be achievable
4. An end to fossil fuel subsidies
5. A price on carbon