The International Energy Agency (IEA) at the weekend announced its commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from its activities to net zero by 2024, aligning itself with the recommendations of its recent landmark report ‘Net zero by 2050: a roadmap for the global energy sector’.
Commenting on the development, the IEA executive director, Fatih Birol, said: “The IEA is committed to helping all countries achieve their energy and climate goals, with our Roadmap to Net Zero by 2050 providing a narrow but achievable pathway to this critical goal.
“As I have pointed out repeatedly, it’s not enough to simply talk about net zero – you have to act. That’s what we’re doing by putting in place practical measures that follow the recommendations of our road-map. We are determined for the IEA to reach ‘net zero’ by November 2024 – the 50th anniversary of the founding of our agency.”
Based on a detailed assessment of the greenhouse gas emissions footprint of its operations and in accordance with the highest international standards, the IEA is pursuing a concrete and practical action plan to reduce emissions quickly and as close to zero as possible. This will include all emissions from the use of IEA offices, official missions, staff members’ commutes, procurement of goods and services, waste generation, water use and fugitive emissions from air conditioning and other areas.
Planned measures include encouraging greater use of video-conferencing to reduce travel; purchasing clean electricity for offices; and engaging with suppliers and contractors on addressing emissions from the goods and services they provide to the IEA. For any residual emissions the agency may still have in 2024, it will purchase carbon credits with the highest level of environmental integrity.
The IEA will provide annual updates on its progress towards net zero emissions which will include verification of the outcome in 2024 by an independent third party.
The agency announced its goal of bringing down greenhouse emissions from its activities rapidly, in alignment with the recommendations of its landmark ‘Roadmap to Net Zero by 2050’.
