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Mehrum coal-fired power plant in Lower Saxony (2015)
Photo: Julian Stratenschulte / DPA
According to a study, global greenhouse gas emissions from the energy sector have probably passed their peak.
Because of the corona crisis, global power plant emissions would be around ten percent lower this year than in 2019, according to a study by Bloomberg Energy Finance published on Tuesday.
Even if emissions rise again with the hoped-for economic recovery in the next few years, they will no longer reach the level of 2019, predict the Bloomberg experts.
The reason is that electricity from wind or sun is becoming cheaper and cheaper, investments in such technologies are increasing - and in return, coal-fired power plants in particular are losing their relative importance.
This trend has already become apparent in Europe and Germany in recent years.
In the USA, too, despite the promises made by US President Donald Trump, there has been no coal renaissance;
the number of power plants has even decreased further.
According to the study, CO2 emissions from coal-fired power plants in China and India will peak by 2030.
Natural gas, on the other hand, will become the only fossil energy source that will gain in importance by 2050, the authors predict.
Natural gas power plants, however, only emit roughly half the amount of greenhouse gas from coal-fired piles per kilowatt hour of electricity generated.
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clh / Reuters
