If you missed IEA's chief economist "saying the unsayable", slides from the talk are now online

Last week we blogged that Fatih Birol, chief economist at the International Energy Agency, had said the unsayable: that is, it's virtually impossible for us to meet climate change targets with current policies.

Dr Birol made these remarks at a lecture at the Grantham Institute for Climate Change. The slides from that lecture are now online. The concluding slide states:

Recently announced policies can make a difference, but fall well short of what is needed for a secure & sustainable energy future

The age of cheap oil is over, though policy action could bring lower international prices than would otherwise be the case

Stronger penetration of natural gas can have profound implications for energy markets and environment

Renewables are entering the mainstream, but long-term support is needed to boost their competitiveness

Lack of ambition in Copenhagen/Cancun has increased the cost of achieving the 2C goal & made it less likely to happen

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The IEA's chief economist Fatih Birol says the unsayable

Fatih Birol, chief economist at the International Energy Agency, says it's virtually impossible for us to meet climate change targets with current policies.

The BBC's environmental analyst Roger Harrabin reported on this morning's Today programme (3 mins in) that Dr Birol said it would take "a doubling of the current effort and then another doubling again". Harrabin remarked that Dr Birol "had said the unsayable".

Even BP agrees.

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IEA calls for end of government subsidies for fossil fuels

The International Energy Agency calls for governments to stop subsidising the fossil fuel industry. Last year governments - mainly in the developing world - spent $312bn subsidising coal oil, gas and coal. The BBC's Roger Harrabin reports that the IEA's World Energy Outlook 2010 - released today - says:

"Subsidies that artificially lower energy prices encourage wasteful consumption and undermine the competitiveness of renewable and more energy-efficient technologies."

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Oil still has us over a barrel

Jeremy Leggett, CEO of SolarCentury, one of the 2008 Ashden Awards winners, speaks out in his regular column for The Guardian about his concerns over peak oil and puts the latest oil finds in the Gulf of Mexico and other areas of the world into perspective. Based on an oilfield-by-oilfield study by the International Energy Agency (IEA), he argues that oil supplies are still depleting at an alarming rate, at a time when demand is also increasing, particularly in countries like India and China: “the IEA sees the potential for a global oil-supply crunch within just five years”.

Read the full story here.

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