JAPAN: June 9, 2008


TOKYO - Planet-warming carbon emissions will rise 130 percent and oil demand will rise 70 percent by 2050 under current government policies, the International Energy Agency warned in a report on Friday.


Governments around the world must bring about a "global energy technology revolution" to reduce CO2 emissions, the IEA said, adding that the total investment required to halve emissions by 2050 would come to US$45 trillion.

A massive research and development effort will be needed in the next 15 years costing about $10 billion to $100 billion per year to develop technology to cut CO2 emissions, the IEA said in its Energy Technology Perspectives report.

The IEA advises 27 industrialised countries.

The report comes ahead of a meeting of Group of Eight energy ministers -- plus their peers from China, India and South Korea -- in the northern Japan city of Aomori this weekend, where they will face the daunting task of agreeing the role of consumer nations in stemming oil's five-year price rally.

Record oil prices have triggered protests across Europe, pushed airlines into the red and forced Asian nations into unwanted fuel price rises, intensifying inflationary pressures. Coal and natural gas costs have also surged, adding pressure to household and industrial power prices as well.




REUTERS NEWS SERVICE