Governments must draw on the lessons from the successes and failures of the massive stimulus packages rolled out in the wake of the 2008 financial collapse to accelerate the economic recovery from the coronavirus crisis and keep the global energy transition on track, the head of International Energy Agency (IEA) has said.

IEA executive director Fatih Birol, in a statement on the agency website, argued that policy-makers must “think big” but “build on what they already have” and work with market-proven renewables technologies, led by wind and solar power, to ensure the coming waves of government spending align with national and international economic, energy security and climate goals.