LONDON- Net zero emissions pledges and a commitment by leaders at the COP26 climate conference to cut methane, if enforced, would enable the world to limit global warming to below 2 degrees Celsius, the International Energy Agency said on Thursday.

"New @IEA analysis shows that fully achieving all net zero pledges to date & the Global Methane Pledge by those who signed it would limit global warming to 1.8C," IEA chief Fatih Birol wrote on Twitter.

The talks in Glasgow are aimed at enforcing goals agreed in Paris in 2015 to limit the global average temperature rise to well below 2C above pre-industrial levels and make efforts to limit it to 1.5C (2.7 Fahrenheit).

While many non-governmental organisations are sceptical that pledges being announced at the climate talks taking place in Glasgow over the first two weeks of November will be enforced, Birol told a panel the IEA's analysis of the pledges so far was "very, very good news" and "extremely encouraging".

The Paris-based IEA, the world's top energy watchdog, was founded after the 1973 oil crisis to ensure developed countries had access to affordable and reliable energy.

The United States, one of the world's top fossil fuel producers and consumers, is among its top financial backers.

In May, the IEA departed from years of describing the status quo in the energy industry with a warning that no new fossil fuel  projects beyond this year besides those already approved should be given the go-ahead if the world hoped to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. 

The agency doubled down on the recommendation in its flagship annual World Energy Outlook this month, which aids countries and companies in making billions of dollars worth of investment decisions. 

It said clean energy investment needs to triple within the next decade if net zero goals are to be reached by mid-century and said the recovery from the pandemic had relied excessively on fossil fuels.

(Reporting By Noah Browning; Editing by Alison Williams and Barbara Lewis) ((noah.browning@thomsonreuters.com;))