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IEA’s 2025 Outlook Restores ‘Current Policies’ Case, Warning Oil and Gas Could Grow to 2050 and Miss Climate Targets

The IEA reintroduces a Current Policies Scenario to reflect outcomes under existing rules, projecting fossil demand incompatible with the 1.5°C limit.

FILE - Workers put switches and connectors on solar panels after they come out of automated framing at a ReNew solar panel manufacturing plant on the outskirts of Jaipur, India, Aug. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup, File)
A view of the logo of the International Energy Agency in Paris, France, December 15, 2023. REUTERS/Sarah Meyssonnier/File Photo
Sheep graze under solar panels in Hainan prefecture of western China's Qinghai province on Tuesday, July 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
FILE - The Kyger Creek Power Plant, a coal-fired power plant, operates April 14, 2025, near Cheshire, Ohio. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel, File)

Overview

  • Under the reinstated Current Policies Scenario, global oil demand reaches about 113 million barrels per day by 2050, with CO2 emissions in 2050 roughly unchanged from today.
  • In the Stated Policies Scenario, oil and coal peak around 2030 as renewables lead growth, but emissions fall only modestly by 2050, leaving a trajectory closer to 2.5°C.
  • The IEA says all scenarios overshoot 1.5°C, noting that only a net‑zero pathway with significant carbon removal brings temperatures back down later in the century.
  • The report highlights a major LNG buildout, with roughly 300 bcm of new annual export capacity starting by 2030, a 50% increase that supports higher gas supply.
  • Rising electricity demand from data centres and AI features prominently, with 2025 data‑centre investment estimated at $580 billion, exceeding annual spending on new oil supply, as the Global Carbon Project reports record 2025 CO2 emissions during COP30.