Natural gas will be the dominant fossil fuel in 2050 and almost a third of electricity will be used for the production of ‘green hydrogen’ according to the prognosis of the International Agency for Renewable Energy (ARENA). The consumption of fossil fuels should decrease by the mid century by 75 percent and oil and gas even before that.- ARENA warned- sketching the conditions for limiting the growth of temperature on Earth by 1.5 degrees Celsius, in line with the Paris Climate Agreement, as reported by the regional business portal SEEBiz.eu. By the year 2050, 30 percent of electricity will be used for the production of ‘green hydrogen’ and hydrogen and its derivatives, such as e-ammonium and e-methanol as further stated in the report. In order to achieve that, the global capacity of electrolysers should surge from the present 0.3 to almost 5.000 GW.
The Agency is warning that governments will have the opportunity to use the extremely large post-pandemic incentive packages which have up to now mainly favored fossil fuels and to step up the energy transition. Developed economies have announced economic incentive packages that will directly inject in the carbon-relevant sectors, such as agriculture, industry, waste management, energy, and transport 4.500 billion USD. Less than a 1.800billion USD has been earmarked for green investments, IRENA warns. These investments should grow by a third to the mid-century, namely, to 131 thousand billion dollars in order to achieve the earmarked climate goals. This on average means investments of approximately 4.400 billion dollars annually. Investments in green energy would bring enormous benefits to society and the economy, it points out because it would create three times more jobs per one spent million dollars than fossil fuels.
