A carbon moon-shot: Fossil fuels could peak as early as 2025, experts explain

Oct 18, 2021

Demand for fossil fuels will peak by 2025 if countries meet their climate pledges. Image: Unsplash/Wim van't Einde

Simon Evans

Policy Editor, Carbon Brief

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Number of mentions of each IEA scenario in World Energy Outlooks since 2017, per 100 pages of text. Image: Carbon Brief analysis of the last five IEA outlooks.

Global energy supply from coal, oil and gas, exajoules, 1965-2050. Image: IEA World Energy Outlook 2021

Global energy-related emissions 2000-2050 under the scenarios set out in the WEO 2021 and the pre-Paris baseline, billions of tonnes. Image: Fatih Birol / IEA.

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Measures for closing the ambition gap between countries’ climate pledges (APS) and a 1.5C pathway (NZE). Image: IEA World Energy Outlook 2021.

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Selected energy-related infrastructure (coloured points) and water stress levels in 2020 (shading). Image: IEA World Energy Outlook 2021.

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