Good and bad news on climate change

Illuminem summarizes for you the essential news of the day. Read the full piece on Financial Times or enjoy below:

🗞️ Driving the news: The fight against climate change is witnessing a dichotomy: technological innovation in renewable energy is advancing rapidly, but global political agreements to facilitate this transition are lagging
• This gap raises questions about whether technological progress can outweigh political inertia in time to effectively combat climate change

🔭 The context: Technological advancements have significantly reduced the cost of renewable energy sources making them increasingly competitive with fossil fuels with the International Energy Agency suggesting that under current policies, a peak in fossil fuel usage could occur by 2030
• However, these changes alone may not be sufficient to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050

🌍 Why it matters for the planet: Rapidly transitioning to a clean energy system is crucial for mitigating climate change but the pace needs to accelerate to meet critical climate targets
• This transition also offers benefits such as reduced local pollution and a more distributed energy generation system

⏭️ What's next: Achieving the International Energy Agency's “net zero emissions by 2050” scenario requires increased investment in clean energy and a significant shift in funding away from fossil fuels
• Emerging and developing countries, in particular, need financial support for this transition. The upcoming COP28 summit will be a key platform for addressing these challenges and advancing global energy policy

💬 One quote: "An energy system based on clean electricity is now conceivable" (Martin Wolf, chief economics commentator at the Financial Times)

📈 One stat: Investment in fossil fuels is expected to drop from 60% to 10% of investment in clean sources by 2030 under the net zero emissions by 2050 scenario

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