The Covid-19 Crisis and Clean Energy Progress
Impact on sectors and technologies
This report is part of Tracking Clean Energy Progress
About this report
The Covid-19 pandemic has dealt a massive blow to countries around the world, choking economies and transforming daily life for billions of people. This extraordinary disruption has significantly impacted the energy sector, with worrying implications for clean energy transitions. Some key clean energy technologies have been encouragingly resilient to the effects of the crisis, but so far there is little to suggest that the dramatic structural progress needed to achieve long-term climate and energy goals will happen in the current turmoil. Unprecedented action and leadership from governments, companies and other real-world decision makers will be required to put the world more firmly on a sustainable long-term pathway. The energy sector must achieve dramatic, sustained emissions reductions through policy, investment and innovation measures across all energy sectors and technologies.
About this report
Building on Tracking Clean Energy Progress 2020 and other COVID-19 analysis, this article takes stock of how the crisis has affected energy sectors and technologies thus far, and explores the potential implications for clean energy transitions over the medium and longer term.
Over the coming weeks and months, the IEA will continue monitoring and analysing the effect of the crisis on clean energy progress. In the autumn, a major report will provide a more comprehensive analysis of all relevant data from the first half of 2020.