Are we getting closer to a clean energy revolution?

The International Energy Agency (IEA) recently released its roadmap to 2050, in which it made a 180 ° turn in its vision for the future of the energy industry . Starting with a message calling for renouncing investment in new projects in the oil industry, the IEA makes clear its commitments to sustainable and environmentally friendly development.

According to the report, of the energy projects that have been approved so far in 2021, the "forecast does not include any new oil or gas site for extraction purposes." In addition, the IEA seeks to completely reverse the consequences and problems that the use of fossil fuels brings with it in the next three decades . It is expected that, then, the energy from fossil fuels will represent only a fifth of the total energy used in the world.

Also read: Colombia bets on renewable energies

For Fatih Birol, executive director of the IEA, the goal is to reach net zero emissions by 2050, and he affirms that although it is a tight goal, it is achievable . He also declared that it is "perhaps the greatest challenge humanity has ever faced." In that order of ideas, the roadmap proposes priority actions that, if executed today, will guarantee that this goal will be reached by 2050. There are around 400 actions that this document proposes, but the most important is that of no investment fossil fuel projects.

How would this affect my daily life?

The roadmap proposed by the IEA is a respite for environmental organizations around the world, as this is the entity in charge of regulating and controlling the energy policies of the States that are part of it. This implies, not only that the large international organizations and organizations attached to the non-clean energy industry are paying attention to the need to align with the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement, but also the member states of the Agency will be unified, which implies that the actions taken will make more sense and, therefore, more effectiveness.

Now, how this can affect personal life, it will take a while to show, because although certain proposed actions are already being applied, others are projected to be developed in a matter of years. For example, it is expected that by 2035 new cars with combustion engines will stop being sold .

Likewise, it must be taken into account that although it is expected that there will not be oil or gas projects that will be approved, this refers to new ones, that is, existing ones are not prohibited. Therefore, the paradigm shift is expected to be slow, considering that countries would have to invest a large amount of money not only in new clean and renewable energy projects (which of course is already being done around the entire world). world), but also in an infrastructure that ranges from public to private electricity systems.

It is enough to think that if you want to have an electric car, it is necessary to adapt the electrical system of the house to be able to make correct use of it. Now, we must think that in this case not only would the electrical systems of the homes be adapted, but that, since it is a shift towards clean and renewable energies, the energy supply centers must also be adapted.

Are we at the gates of a different world?

This change would not only mean a very large structural change, but also a hope for the environmental fight that is being carried out from different sectors as a result of the environmental crises that we are going through. Taking into account that the pollution and climate crisis have a large part of their origin in the use of fossil fuels, this change is proposing a solution from the root, that is, a solution that is not only cloths of warm water, but also indeed it would have a more than positive result .