Accelerating clean energy transitions

An increasing number of countries have been making pledges to reduce their emissions to net zero in the coming decades. To inform these efforts, the IEA released a first-of-its-kind Net Zero Roadmap in 2021, outlining what would be required within the energy sector to achieve this goal at the global level by mid-century. An update to the Roadmap, which has served as an essential benchmark for policy makers, industry, the financial sector and civil society, was published in 2023.

The Roadmap is based on the IEA’s Net Zero Emissions (NZE) Scenario, which portrays a pathway for the global energy sector to achieve net zero carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 2050 while maintaining energy security. This scenario is consistent with keeping long-term global warming to 1.5 °C with limited overshoot. It also aims to meet key energy-related UN Sustainable Development Goals, particularly achieving universal access to modern energy services by 2030. The NZE Scenario is normative, working backwards from a defined outcome, and factors in the need for orderly energy transitions that are also just and equitable.