IEA’s Birol ‘optimistic’ amid ‘huge challenges’

Governments need to take a leading role in supporting technological development and tackling the emissions of legacy power and industrial facilities, he says

There are still “huge challenges” to meeting Paris Agreement emissions targets that will require greater levels of technological development and government support to overcome, according to Fatih Birol, executive director of the Paris-based IEA. “A key issue is for the governments and investors to make the right technology policies and make the right technology investments. This is extremely critical,” said Birol at the launch of the IEA’s Energy Technology Perspectives (ETP) report this morning. Birol cautions that the climate debate is “overwhelmingly” concentrated on the electricity sector, but even if it achieved zero emissions that would not be enough, as it accounts for 38pc of total e