No new oil, gas or coal development if world is to reach net zero by 2050, says world energy body

Governments must close gap between net zero rhetoric and reality, says International Energy Agency head

Exploitation and development of new oil and gas fields must stop this year and no new coal-fired power stations can be built if the world is to stay within safe limits of global heating and meet the goal of net zero emissions by 2050, the world's leading energy organisation has said.

In its strongest warning yet on the need to drastically scale back fossil fuels, the International Energy Agency (IEA) also called for no new fossil-fuel cars to be sold beyond 2035, and for global investment in energy to more than double from $2tn (1.42tn) a year to $5tn (3.54tn) The result would not be an economic burden, as some have claimed, but a net benefit to the economy.