Curiously enough, a robust revival of the global economy from the pandemic may result in significant environmental problems. The abrupt launch of production facilities around the world threatens the planet with record pollution, experts at the International Energy Agency (IEA) stressed.
Carbon emissions are set to hit an all-time high by 2023 due to insufficient financing of renewable energy. Countries have allocated more than $16 trillion in fiscal support to boost the economy after the COVID-19 crisis. Notably, only 2% of these funds, (about $350 billion a year) were allocated to the transition to renewable energy sources. Given the growing production activity, this amount will not be enough to achieve the climate goals set by many governments. "Not only is clean energy investment still far from what's needed to put the world on a path to reaching net-zero emissions by mid-century, it's not even enough to prevent global emissions from surging to a new record. Governments need to increase spending and policy action rapidly to meet the commitments they made in Paris in 2015," IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said.
According to the Sustainable Recovery Plan, which was drawn up by the IEA and the IMF, about $1 trillion should be allocated for energy decarbonization. However, currently, only 35% of governments' recovery spending went to clean energy transitions. Developing countries are not on board due to the financial crisis driven by the pandemic.
This is why Fatih Birol appealed to the governments of developed countries to increase spending on the transition to green energy and provide financial assistance to developing countries if they want to slow down global warming. He added that the goal of achieving zero emissions by 2050 remains real if they take a more proactive approach now.
