2013 World Energy Outlook

Here’s the executive summary of the IEA’s (International Energy Agency) 2013 World Energy Outlook.  No surprise:  it expresses concern about climate change from our unabating reliance on fossil fuels, which represents about two-thirds of our total greenhouse gas emissions.  Although the authors admit uncertainty about the energy policies of mega-consumers of coal (i.e., China now and India soon), their conclusions aren’t rosy:

“In our central scenario, taking into account the impact of measures already announced by governments to improve energy efficiency, support renewables, reduce fossil-fuel subsidies and, in some cases, to put a price on carbon, energy-related CO2 emissions still rise by 20% to 2035. This leaves the world on a trajectory consistent with a long-term average temperature increase of 3.6 °C, far above the internationally agreed 2°C target.”