The International Energy Agency (IEA) has released the latest World Energy Outlook 2021, against the backdrop of turbulent markets and the meeting of the COP26 conference on climate change in Glasgow in November.
The organization said that the publication, which has appeared every year since 1998, “provides an indispensable guide to the opportunities, benefits and risks ahead at this vital moment for clean energy transitions.”
The report highlighted four key measures that it stated can help to close the gap between today’s pledges and a 1.5°C trajectory over the next 10 years, as well as underpinning further emissions reductions beyond 2030.
These measures are a massive additional push for clean electrification; a relentless focus on energy efficiency, together with measures to temper energy service demand through materials efficiency and behavioural change; a broad drive to cut methane emissions from fossil fuel operations; and a big boost to clean energy innovation.
The report added that more than 40% of the actions required are cost-effective, and noted that all countries need to do more to achieve these goals. You can read more about the IEA report and download it here.
The focus on energy efficiency as a key pillar to decarbonization ties in with CEEC’s mission to promote more eco-efficient approaches to mining and mineral processing, with a focus on comminution – an area of high energy and cost consumption.
For example, the independent Mining Energy Consumption 2021 report commissioned by the Weir Group and written by Engeco Technical Director Marc Allen, which was released in May, shone a light on the global mining industry’s energy usage, illuminating where energy is consumed and linking it with opportunities and pathways to decarbonize. It found that comminution alone accounts for 25% of final energy consumption at an ‘average’ mine site.