The Paris Agreement, which was signed in 2015, saw delegates from 196 countries meet to agree to cap global warming at “well below 2°C”, with a view to limiting this figure to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.

The IEA’s 2023 Net Zero Roadmap update finds there have been “significant” changes to the energy landscape in the past two years, including “extraordinary growth” in some clean energy technologies. Nevertheless, it also finds that increased investment in fossil fuels is keeping emissions stubbornly high.

Record growth in solar power capacity and electric car sales since 2021 are in line with a net zero emissions pathway by mid-century, as are industry plans for the roll-out of new manufacturing capacity for them. Those two technologies alone are estimated to deliver around one-third of the emissions reductions needed between today and 2030.

Recent calculations by the Berlin-based Mercator Research Institute found that the cost of solar power has...