Climate change

Promoting sustainable development and addressing climate change is an important aspect of energy planning, analysis and policy development. As energy accounts for two-thirds of total greenhouse gas emissions and 80% of carbon dioxide emissions, we need to include energy departments in every effort to reduce emissions and mitigate climate change.

In 2017, global energy-related CO2 emissions increased by 4% to a record high of 3.25 billion tons (Gt), global emissions in three years continued to stabilize and resume growth. However, the increase in carbon dioxide emissions is not universal. While most major economies are growing, other economies including the United States, the UK, Mexico and Japan are declining. The greatest decrease is mainly due to the increase in the spread of renewable energy.

In order to achieve the long-term climate goal of the Paris Agreement, an urgent solution to energy-related greenhouse gas emissions is necessary. Individually and collectively, countries need to develop and implement policies that are supported by realistic solutions, supported by analysis, and based on data, accelerate the transformation of clean energy. The IEA works with countries around the world to realize climate adaptive decarbonisation pathway

Countries around the world have started sustainable energy systems. Given the complexity of these transitions, we can not make a single policy a panacea; we need a comprehensive and integrated policy approach

The energy system is making a big change. Tracking the progress of clean energy is important for achieving sustainable, safe and affordable energy and assessing collective progress toward long-term goals.

In order to thoroughly understand the energy market it is necessary to understand the views of all major companies - their concerns, the challenges they face, and the solutions they are considering. The IEA pledges to build good cooperative relationships with countries outside the Member States.

The IEA is promoting collective actions of international climate change by supporting the UNFCCC and each country to provide solutions, analyzes and data for global energy conversion

Browse databases including national verification information on climate change policies and practices around the world

Please visit our latest modeling and analysis to gain insight into the future scenarios of global energy and climate change

The impact of future climate change depends on climate change policy and social development. The two main policies for coping with climate change are reducing human greenhouse gas emissions (mitigation of climate change) and adaptation to the effects of climate change. Geographic engineering is another policy option. Recent climate change policies may have a significant impact on long-term climate change impact. Due to strict mitigation policies, global warming (2100 years) may be limited to 2 ° C or less compared to the level before industrialization. If we do not decelerate, global warming may become about 4 ° C due to the increase in energy demand and the spread of fossil fuels. The greater the global warming, the more difficult it is to adapt and the higher the risk of adverse effects

The term "climate change" is often used to refer to anthropogenic climate change (also called global warming). Anthropogenic climate change is caused by human activity and climate change may be part of the natural process of the earth. In this sense, the term climate change is synonymous with anthropogenic global warming, especially in the context of environmental policies. In scientific journals global warming refers to other factors that affect climate change, such as rising surface temperature and increasing global warming and greenhouse gas content.

Global warming is related to more general climate change phenomena. This means a change in the overall definition of climate attributes. In addition to changes in temperature, climate change also includes changes in measured values ​​of precipitation patterns, winds, ocean currents and other global climates. In many cases, climate change can be viewed as a combination of natural forces occurring on different time scales. Since the advent of human civilization, climate change has included "artificial" or completely artificial factors that have become more important in the industrial era of the past two centuries. The term global warming is used especially to refer to near-surface air warming that can be traced back to human causes of the past two centuries.