The energy crisis has pushed climate protection into the background in many places.

In Europe in particular, all stops are being pulled out to compensate for the loss of Russian natural gas supplies and to maintain security of supply for electricity and gas.

Niklas Zaboji

Economic correspondent in Paris

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To this end, closed coal-fired power plants are being reactivated and the import of liquefied gas, which is classified as more harmful to the climate than pipeline gas because of the CO2 emissions generated during production, processing and transport, is being increased.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) wrote in its annual report published on Thursday that its member states had to release oil reserves to a considerable extent, calling the energy crisis a "shock of unprecedented scope and complexity".

But in every crisis there are also opportunities.

At least that is the message from IEA boss Fatih Birol.

Recent measures taken by governments around the world promise to make the current crisis "a historic and definitive turning point towards a cleaner, more affordable and more secure energy system".

Oil and gas supplies are being increased or diversified in some cases, but above all structural change is being accelerated in many countries.

Global investment in “clean” energy is set to increase sharply, reaching more than $2 trillion annually by 2030, the IEA predicts.

"The energy markets and energy policy have changed as a result of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and not just temporarily, but for the coming decades," says Birol.

An important funding push

The long-term optimism of the Paris-based energy agency is based not least on the large number of large government investment packages.

In the USA, for example, it is mainly due to the Inflation Reduction Act that the annual expansion of solar and wind energy capacities is likely to grow two and a half times compared to today's level.

In Europe, the IEA is again highlighting the RepowerEU package agreed in response to the Ukraine war, in addition to last year's Fit-for-55 package.

Both lead to faster renewable energy deployment and efficiency gains, meaning that the EU's demand for gas and oil will fall by 20 percent and coal demand by 50 percent this decade.

The increasing investments in low-carbon nuclear energy also find the approval of the energy agency.

Japan's green transformation program provides a major funding push for technologies such as nuclear, low-emission hydrogen and ammonia, and South Korea is also trying to increase the share of nuclear power in its energy mix alongside renewable energy.

India, meanwhile, is making progress towards its goal of reaching 500 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity by 2030, which is expected to meet almost two-thirds of the country's electricity demand.

According to the IEA, China is also moving away from fossil fuels and coal and oil consumption will peak before the end of this decade.

The funds would be there

As a result, the Energy Agency's baseline scenario predicts, for the first time ever, a plateau in global demand for fossil fuels: coal use will decline in the coming years, natural gas use will peak in the late 2020s, and oil demand will decline from the mid-2020s the 2030s onwards.