The IEA's reality check on green energy

A green-energy revolution is beginning, but the world must invest in low-carbon technologies on a much bigger scale to avoid climate change, says the IEA. Tom Nicholls reports

THE GULF of Mexico oil spill could prove a tipping point in the world's energy-consumption habits, says the executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA). "It is a tragic reminder that our current path is not sustainable," Nobuo Tanaka said last month. "It is probably a very important moment for us to look at alternative [energy] sources." Tanaka was speaking at the launch of the 2010 edition of the IEA's biannual Energy Technology Perspectives publication, which sets out the agency's vision for how energy should be supplied – in view of the risks to climate change of carbon-intensive energy use. Since the last edition, in 2008, the agency has detected embryonic signs of a shi