• Thursday, March 28, 2024
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Clean energy growth slows global CO2 emissions rate

Clean energy growth slows global CO2 emissions rate

Global energy-related carbon dioxide emissions rose by 0.9 percent in 2022 – less than initially feared – as the growth of solar, wind, Electric Vehicles (EVs), heat pumps and energy efficiency helped limit the impact of increased use of coal and oil amid the global energy crisis, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).

The think tank said the risk of runaway emissions growth from a shift to coal amid the global energy crisis fails to materialise as renewables, EVs, heat pumps, efficiency and other factors reined in CO2 rise in its latest report on global emissions.

“Although the rise in emissions last year was far smaller than the exceptional jump of over 6 percent in 2021, emissions still remain on an unsustainable growth trajectory, calling for stronger actions to accelerate the clean energy transition and move the world onto a path towards meeting its energy and climate goals,” it said.

IEA said that global energy-related CO2 emissions grew in 2022 by 0.9 percent, or 321 million tonnes, reaching a new high of more than 36.8 billion tonnes.

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According to the energy firm, the rise in emissions was significantly slower than global economic growth of 3.2 percent, signalling a return to a decade-long trend that was interrupted in 2021 by the rapid and emissions-intensive economic rebound from the Covid crisis.

It also said that extreme weather events including droughts and heatwaves, as well as an unusually large number of nuclear power plants being offline, contributed to the rise in emissions. But an additional 550 million tonnes of emissions were avoided by increased deployment of clean energy technologies.

“The impacts of the energy crisis did not result in the major increase in global emissions that was initially feared – and this is thanks to the outstanding growth of renewables, EVs, heat pumps and energy efficient technologies. Without clean energy, the growth in CO2 emissions would have been nearly three times as high,” said Fatih Birol, executive director, IEA.

“However, we still see emissions growing from fossil fuels, hindering efforts to meet the world’s climate targets.”

Birol also said that International and national fossil fuel companies are making record revenues and need to take their share of responsibility, in line with their public pledges to meet climate goals. It is critical that they review their strategies to make sure they’re aligned with meaningful emissions reductions.

According to the IEA, CO2 emissions from coal grew by 1.6 percent as the global energy crisis continued to spur a wave of gas-to-coal switching in Asia, and to a lesser degree in Europe. While the increase in coal emissions was only around one-quarter of 2021’s rise, it still far exceeded the last decade’s average growth rate.