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The weight of coal in world energy is reduced by the pandemic and the rise of renewables

2021-03-29T13:50:39.118Z


Meeting climate targets requires a much greater cut in the burning of this mineral and an accelerated transition to green energy


A man walks past a coal-fired power plant in Harbin, China, in November 2019. JASON LEE / Reuters

Although narrowly, last year the pandemic caused the first drop in global electricity demand since 2009. Consumption fell by 0.1% last year and, together with the advance of renewables - in whose takeoff, the health crisis it barely had an impact: their growth remains solid, at a rate of 15% per year - they caused an unprecedented drop in the burning of coal, by far the most polluting fuel in world energy production.

Electricity generated by this mineral fell 4% last year, according to a report published Monday by industry analysis firm Ember.

  • Wind energy weathers the crisis and closes a record 2020 worldwide

Despite this decline, fully covered by renewables and natural gas, coal continues to cover 33.8% of global electricity demand.

This figure, even being four points lower than in 2015, makes it impossible to meet the climate commitments assumed for the coming years.

"It still needs to fall 80% more by 2030 to avoid dangerous global warming of more than 1.5 degrees Celsius," says Dave Jones, global leader of the British think tank.

The challenge is twofold: to generate enough clean energy to replace coal and, at the same time, provide the electricity that the world economy will need in the near future, when the pandemic is history.

"The leaders of the world have yet to wake up and see the scale of the challenge," stresses Jones.

According to the calculations of the organization Climate Analytics, to avoid the scenario of a 1.5 degree increase in the global average temperature compared to pre-industrial levels, coal should be abolished from the energy matrix by 2040 at the latest.

After the abrupt decrease in electricity consumption registered in the first half of the year, caused by confinements and restrictions on mobility to prevent the spread of the virus, in the final stretch of the year, global demand had already left behind the parenthesis of the pandemic and in December it was already at a higher level than 12 months before.

The truce has been short-lived.

China or the world's great coal redoubt

There is, however, an exception to the general rule of gradual cornering of coal in the global electricity matrix.

And it's not exactly small: China.

The Asian giant added 53% of the electricity produced worldwide by burning this mineral, almost 10 points more than five years ago, despite the unprecedented advance of renewables.

The sustained growth of its energy demand explains a good part of this increase.

Electricity generated from coal grew by 1.7% in 2020, going against its promise to green its electricity matrix in the short term: the most populous country in the world and the spearhead of the emerging bloc, has promised that its Greenhouse gas emissions will reach a ceiling in 2030 to begin to decrease since then and leave its carbon footprint at zero in 2060. A goal that, according to current figures, still seems distant: only the emissions of its electricity sector - without counting the exhalations from transportation or industry — they were 2% higher than five years ago.

Green energies are growing, but not enough

In 2020, wind and solar generated by themselves almost a tenth of the electricity consumed in the world, double than five years ago.

The two sides of the coin are the European Union, which is clearly in the lead - one fifth of the electricity that flows through its grid comes from the air or the sun - and Russia, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia, where renewable generation is virtually zero.

Also worrying is the case of Turkey, whose government has rowed against the tide in recent times: while half the world was pushing back the weight of coal in its electricity matrix, the Eurasian country was replacing gas - a polluting source, but less so - with mineral.

Parallel to the decline in coal and - to a lesser extent - nuclear, unrelated to the pandemic the two largest sources of clean energy - wind and solar - continued their upward trend in 2020.

Both contributed 15% more, the equivalent of the electricity that the United Kingdom consumes annually, while hydroelectricity, bioenergy and the rest of renewables rose 5%.

Insufficient figures, in any case, to correct the dangerous course of climate change.

"Its increase was the highest of all time in absolute terms, but it is not enough to reach the climate objectives", warn the Ember technicians.


Source: elparis

All business articles on 2021-03-29

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