The International Energy Agency (IEA) published misleading projections concerning solar photovoltaic and wind energy between 1994 and 2014, a report says.
Energy Watch Group (EWG) and Lappenranta University of Technology (LUT) have published the report which claims the IEA has been holding back global energy transition for years.
World Energy Outlook (WEO), the annual reports published by the IEA, have been carrying misleading projections on solar photovoltaic (PV) and wind energy, according to the EWG–LUT report.
EWG-LUT says the false predictions in the WEO reports have led to high investments in fossil and nuclear power sectors, and hindered global development of renewable energy, undermining the global fight against climate change.
One instance of false projection in IEA-WEO is that it assumes linear growth for clean energy technologies, which means there is no improvement in annual installations.
By WEO projections, renewable energy was expected to provide only 14 percent of global power supply by 2030. However, average growth rates of the past two decades show that it should in fact be close to 60 percent.
According to the lead author of the study professor Christian Breyer of the LUT, the WEO dramatically undervalued the potential of solar photovoltaic and wind energy leading to “fatal projections”.
“From a scientific point of view, these structural errors are incomprehensible, from a social perspective they are irresponsible,” he has stated.
The EWG-LUT report says the WEO reports have had an impact on nations covered by Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
The WEO reports are approved by OECD governments, some of which have high stakes in conventional power industry.
EWG–LUT has called to the scientific community and civil society to examine closer political and business dependencies within the IEA.
Ajith Kumar S