Green energy lobbyists and commentators are constantly shouting about new records for renewable energy – that is renewable electricity production. Progress is being made, it seems, all around us, led by China.
However, according to a recent report from the International Energy Agency (IEA), energy-related CO2 emissions rose by 1.7% last year, to 33.1 gigatonnes. This level of increase, + 560 metric tonnes compared with 2017, is the equivalent of a year’s worth of emissions from international aviation. This is not progress.
I read about this in a gloomy Economist article. The result is, of course, that human carbon emissions and hence global warming continue to grow.
Inevitably there are nice graphs that show the scale of the problem, but I'm not savvy enough to copy them here – you'll just have to read the article. Europe has a better story to tell in relation to coal and oil – and the UK particularly so – and even the USA has reduced coal use. But all fuels continue to increase in China and India. The Economist notes:
"Robust global GDP growth of 3.7% last year caused energy demand to rise by some 2.3%, its fastest pace for a decade. And although energy efficiency did improve and use of renewable sources did increase—solar power generation rose by 31%—these gains were dwarfed by the growth in the use of fossil fuels, which accounted for 70% of the rise in global energy consumption. ... Burning of coal, the most egregious source of carbon, accounted for a third of the growth in emissions. A new generation of coal-fired power plants in Asia was responsible for nearly all the additional global demand. Those power plants are expected to remain active for another 40 years."
This is how the article ends:
"Perhaps the most worrying finding in the report is the threat of a feedback loop between severe weather events and carbon emissions. According to the IEA, a hotter-than-average summer and colder-than-average winter led to greater use of heating and air conditioning, which together were responsible for about half of the rise in energy demand in America and roughly a fifth of the worldwide increase. If humans keep burning fuel to shield themselves from extreme temperatures, and the emissions produced by that activity cause temperatures to become ever more extreme, the worst-case scenarios for climate change are more likely to materialise."
Even gloomier, but it might be good for the Welsh wool industry if it is smart; all those extra sweaters we should be buying. Happily I have a fabulous one which I dug out and wore for the first time in years during January – it went well with my mole-skin trousers and thick walking socks. A fashion role model at last ...
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