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Bloomberg
Driving electric cars and scrapping your natural gas-fired boiler won’t make a dent in global carbon emissions, and may even increase pollution levels.
Higher electrification may lead to oil demand peaking by 2030, but any reduction in emissions from the likes of electric vehicles will be offset by the increased use of power plants to charge them, according to the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) annual World Energy Outlook, which plots different scenarios of future energy use.
In order to significantly reduce harmful pollution by 2040, electrification will have to form part of a comprehensive package of policies to reduce power sector carbon emissions and improve energy efficiency, the Paris-based body that advises nations on energy policy said.
The clamour for global action to dramatically cut emissions has reached fever pitch in recent months following the publication of a United Nations report that called for annual investment of $2.4 trillion in cle-an energy to avoid irreversible damage to the world.