Schroptschop
New data from the International Energy Agency (IEA) reveals that global energy-related carbon emissions slowed down in 2023 because of the continued expansion of renewables, nuclear power and electric vehicles.
In 2023, global energy-related carbon emissions reached a record level of 37.4 billion tonnes. However, according to the IEA’s latest report, 2023’s rise of 410 million tonnes, or 1.1%, is lower than 2022’s rise of 490 million tonnes.
The reason why emissions grew more weakly is down to the continued growth of clean energy technologies, such as solar PV, wind power, nuclear power and electric cars. According to the IEA, without these technologies, the global increase in CO2 emissions in the last five years would have been three times larger.
The overall rise in energy-related emissions would have been significantly smaller if it hadn’t been for the low hydropower output caused by extreme droughts in China, the US and several other economies. With these economies having to turn to fossil fuel alternatives for electricity generation, it resulted in over 40% of the rise in global CO2 emissions in 2023.
The global decline in emissions was achieved despite GDP growth in advanced economies. The report states that last year was the first in which at least half of electricity generation in advanced economies came from renewable or low-emission sources such as renewables and nuclear power.
Additionally, from 2019 to 2023 clean energy deployment outpaced that of fossil fuels by a factor of two.
However, with clean energy technologies predominantly deployed in advanced economies and China, the IEA highlights the need for greater international efforts to increase clean energy investment and deployment in emerging and developing economies.
In 2023, advanced economies and China accounted for 90% of new solar PV and wind power plants globally, and 95% of sales of electric vehicles. In 2023, China added as much solar PV capacity in 2023 than the entire world did in 2022.
“The clean energy transition is continuing apace and reining in emissions – even with global energy demand growing more strongly in 2023 than in 2022,” said IEA executive director Fatih Birol.
“The commitments made by nearly 200 countries at COP28 in Dubai in December show what the world needs to do to put emissions on a downward trajectory. Most importantly, we need far greater efforts to enable emerging and developing economies to ramp up clean energy investment.”
