Although energy demand has increased, clean energy technologies have helped the world reduce its use of fossil fuels last year.
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According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), without clean energy technologies, global carbon emissions would have tripled in the last five years.
Global carbon dioxide emissions are set to remain at a record high in 2023, but a new analysis finds that an increase in clean sources has led to a “structural slowdown” in energy-related emissions.
While energy demand is growing, the expansion of solar, wind and nuclear power helped the world avoid further use of fossil fuels last year.
Electric vehicles, which will account for one in five new car sales in 2023, also played a role in keeping oil demand from exceeding pre-pandemic levels.
Global carbon emissions growth is slowing
Despite the challenges, energy-related emissions did not grow as sharply in 2023 as they did in 2022, according to the annual report released Friday, suggesting the world could soon see peaking carbon emissions as the use of clean energy technologies accelerates.
“The clean energy transition has been subjected to a series of stress tests over the past five years and has shown its resilience,” said IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol.
“The pandemic, the energy crisis and geopolitical instability all had the potential to undermine efforts to build a cleaner and safer energy system.”
Instead, Birol adds, many economies have seen the opposite happen: Emissions remain subdued, even as the clean energy transition continues and energy demand is higher in 2023 than in 2022.
In the EU, for example, emissions from energy production fell by about 9 percent, with half of this decline coming from increased use of clean energy. For the first time, wind power has surpassed both natural gas and coal in energy production, according to the IEA.
Use of coal for electricity fell 27% and natural gas fell 15%. The IEA said the recovery of hydroelectric power from the 2022 drought and the partial recovery of nuclear power also played a role in reducing reliance on fossil fuels.
Extreme weather drives emissions
The IEA report also highlights how the worsening weather caused by the El Niño phenomenon will affect energy production from clean sources.
Extreme drought has made 2022 a “historically bad” year for hydropower, as water shortages have led to reduced electricity generation, which has been largely replaced by fossil fuels, which accounted for around 40% of the total increase in carbon dioxide emissions last year.
India and China were particularly affected by the decline in hydropower, with China’s emissions from fossil fuels increasing by 5.2%. Rapid growth in other clean energy sources such as solar, wind and electric vehicles in 2023 was not enough to cover growing demand.
In India, a weaker than normal monsoon season increased electricity demand and reduced hydroelectric production, accounting for a quarter of the increase in the country’s emissions.
What still needs to be done to reduce global emissions?
But obstacles remain before global emissions can reach this peak.
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Clean energy growth is concentrated in developed countries and China, which together account for 90% of the world’s new solar and wind power installations and 95% of EV sales, according to the IEA report.
And not all clean energy technologies have made advances, with heat pump sales declining slightly last year as consumers struggled to make big purchases.
“The commitments made by almost 200 countries at COP28 in Dubai in December show what the world needs to do to put emissions on a downward trajectory,” Birol said.
“Most importantly, much greater efforts are needed to help emerging and developing countries scale up investments in clean energy.”
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