High voltage power lines in Pinole, California, Thursday, June 17, 2021.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Carbon dioxide emissions from the global electricity sector exceeded pre-pandemic levels and peaked during the first half of 2021, according to new research from London-based environmental think tank Ember.
Electricity demand and emissions are now 5% higher than before the Covid-19 outbreak, which caused global blockages that led to a temporary drop in global greenhouse gas emissions. The analysis found that electricity demand also outpaced the growth of renewable energy.
The findings indicate a failure of countries to achieve the so-called “green recovery” that would involve moving away from fossil fuels to renewable energy to avoid the worst consequences of climate change.
The report found that 61% of the world’s electricity still came from fossil fuels by 2020. Five G20 countries had more than 75% of their electricity supplied from fossil fuels last year, along with Arabia. Saudi 100%, South Africa 89%, Indonesia 83%, Mexico 75% and Australia 75%.
Coal generation fell a record 4% in 2020, but global coal supplied 43% of additional energy demand between 2019 and 2020. Asia currently generates 77% of the world’s electricity. coal and China alone generates 53%, compared to 44% in 2015..
The global transition out of carbon energy, which contributes to about 30 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, is happening too slowly to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, the study warned. And the International Energy Agency predicts that coal generation will recover in 2021 as electricity demand rises again.
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“Progress is by no means fast. Despite the record drop in coal during the pandemic, it was still below what was needed,” Ember chief analyst Dave Jones said in a statement.
Jones said coal energy use should collapse by 80% by the end of the decade to prevent dangerous levels of global warming above 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit).
“We need to build enough clean electricity to simultaneously replace coal and electrify the global economy,” Jones said. “World leaders have not yet woken up to the enormity of the challenge.”
Conclusions are ahead of the UN climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland, in November, at which negotiators will push for more ambitious climate actions and promises to reduce nations ’emissions.
Without immediate, rapid, and large-scale reductions in global emissions, scientists at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warn that the average global temperature is likely to cross the 1.5-degree Celsius threshold in 20 years.
The study also highlighted some advantages. Wind and solar generation, for example, increased by 15% in 2020, producing almost a tenth of the world’s electricity last year and doubling production since 2015.
Some countries now get about 10% of their electricity from wind and solar energy, including India, China, Japan and Brazil. The United States and Europe have experienced the highest growth in wind and solar energy, with 33% from Germany and 29% from the United Kingdom.