Report warns that fossil fuel use is similar to what it was ten years ago

London-Sana

A report by the “Rain 21 Network” on clean energy policies warned that global use of fossil fuels is still at the same level as it was ten years ago, despite the decline in the cost of renewable energy sources and pressure on governments to act to solve the problem of climate change.

The report, quoted by Reuters, indicated that the use of fossil fuels continues amid the increasing global demand for energy, the continued consumption and investment in new plants for this type of fuel, and the decline in the use of biomass energy such as wood or agricultural waste in heating and cooking.

The report indicated that the use of fossil fuels for all global energy sources amounted to 80.2 percent in 2019 compared to 80.3 in 2009, while environmentally friendly renewable energy such as wind and solar energy accounted for 11.2 percent in 2019, up from 8.7 percent in 2009.

He pointed out that although renewable energy sources outperform new power plants that run on natural gas in terms of cost in many locations and are the cheapest sources of electricity generation, investments in them represent only one-sixth of the amount of fossil fuel investments.

With the increasing concentration of carbon dioxide emissions that result from burning fossil fuels such as gas and petroleum, calls for governments to cut emissions further and reduce the use of fossil fuels to meet global climate goals have increased.

“We are waking up to the bitter reality that the promises of climate policy over the past 10 years have been mostly hollow words,” said Rana Adeeb, CEO of Rain21, adding that “the share of fossil fuels in final energy consumption has not decreased by an inch.”