Liam Denning, Columnist

Why a Fight About Energy in 2040 Matters Right Now

IEA forecasts for demand and climate change can shape attitudes and behaviors.

April 8, 2019 at 3:35 PM UTC

Liam Denning is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering energy. A former banker, he edited the Wall Street Journal’s Heard on the Street column and wrote the Financial Times’s Lex column.

Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency (IAE).
Photographer: Bloomberg/Bloomberg

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When I use Google Maps, it gives me several options, but I usually take the one it highlights without thinking too much about it.

Do energy and climate road maps work the same way? Some 60-odd signatories representing a swath of investment funds, scientific institutions, and think tanks suggest they do, in a recent letter to Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency. Their focus is the IEA’s annual “World Energy Outlook,” or WEO, a doorstop of a report with projections detailing how we will power society through decades to come. The letter praises the WEO as “a constant lighthouse,” informing and shaping decisions around the world. Then it suggests some changes.