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When Will Global Emissions Peak?

On this week’s Zero, Akshat Rathi talks to International Energy Agency Executive Director Fatih Birol about what it will take to cap warming at 1.5C.

Photovoltaic panels at a solar farm and wind turbines near a coal fired power station in Jiaxing, Zhejiang province, China, last year.

Photovoltaic panels at a solar farm and wind turbines near a coal fired power station in Jiaxing, Zhejiang province, China, last year.

Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg

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Emissions will have to peak by 2025 to limit global temperature rise to no more than 1.5C, according to data from the International Energy Agency. But when exactly that peak is reached majorly depends on energy-consumption giants such as China and India, which are looking to grow their economies and improve living standards even as they tackle long-term decarbonization.