IEA official urges short-term actions to cut emissions, broaden energy supply

摘要

As global markets and individual countries grapple with balancing energy security and Climate concerns, they should make easier, short-term changes instead of setting long-term emission-reduction targets and energy-supply goals that are harder to achieve, a top International Energy Agency official said last week. Fatih Birol, IEA's chief economist, said setting targets for 2030 or 2100 is "very nice and good." But major changes are needed within the next 10 years, Birol said during a panel discussion on energy and climate security at the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston. China and India are the biggest areas of demand and emis- sions growth, but other countries "do not have a right to tell" them to stifle growth, he said. Instead, China and India should be encouraged to use better technologies and efficiencies to forgo installing new coal-fired power plants with old technologies that would run for 50 to 60 years, Birol said. "Our future will be locked in ... if we cannot change those decisions," he said.