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(CNN Spanish) --
A single figure seems to be enough to make the environmental balance of 2022: the demand for coal will grow 1.2% and will exceed 8,000 million tons for the first time in history this year, according to the International Agency for Energy, despite the warnings, which can no longer be more gloomy and clear, about the need to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels.
Coal is the world's largest source of energy for electricity generation and the production of steel and cement.
But it is also primarily responsible for the climate crisis: it accounts for around 40% of global greenhouse gas emissions from the use of fossil fuels.
And a year ago, in an agreement announced with great fanfare, the international community committed itself at COP26 in Scotland to gradually reduce its commitment to this fuel.
(The 2022 figures seem more in the spirit of COP27, held this year in Egypt, which while it agreed to help the victims of the climate crisis — a commitment that, incidentally, developed nations had already made and reneged on — did not achieved a specific deal on fossil fuels after several oil-producing nations obstructed negotiations).
The energy cost of war
When world leaders met in Glasgow in 2021, Russia's war in Ukraine had not started, causing a deep energy crisis in Europe and a spike in the price of natural gas and other fuels.
And so Europe, hitherto self-flagging the transition to green energy, turned to coal, even commissioning recently closed power plants.
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Whatever the causes, the truth is that the international community is supposed to be trying to limit the rise in global temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and that, according to a recent UN report, we are in on the way to a warming of between 2.1 and 2.9 degrees Celsius if countries' promises so far are taken into account (the promises, which are sometimes much more than the actual achievements).
And, meanwhile, the heat waves, droughts and floods that in 2022 left death and destruction in their wake as far away in the world as the United States and Pakistan, were exacerbated, according to some scientists, by the climate crisis.
The deaths of environmental defenders
Climatic phenomena stimulated by rising temperatures translate into deaths, and so does the fight to preserve the environment.
"Although this was the first year that the Escazú Agreement, which seeks transparency of information and protect environmental defenders, entered into force, Colombia and Mexico rebound as the countries with the highest deaths for those who fight for the nature of our planet," In this regard, María José Villanueva, coordinator of WWF's Latin American and Caribbean Conservation Cabinet and WWF Mexico's Director of Conservation, stated in statements to CNN en Español.
And we must not forget Brazil, where this year the deaths of British journalist Dom Phillips and researcher Bruno Pereira in the Amazon shocked the world.
Bittersweet taste in terms of biodiversity
The climate crisis is inextricably linked to that of biodiversity.
In this field, one figure is also enough to understand the serious situation facing the planet: globally, populations of vertebrate animals fell by an average of 69% in almost 50 years, according to the Living Planet 2022 report published by WWF.
The situation is especially painful in Latin America, which has lost 94% of its vertebrates on average between 1970 and 2018.
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However, while the world was still attentive to the celebration of Argentina after winning the World Cup in Qatar, in Canada a historic agreement was sealed between nations to ensure the protection of 30% of the planet and 30% of degraded ecosystems by 2030.
“2022 was a year of bittersweet flavors in environmental matters.
Although we have had some positive advances, scientific data urges us to take immediate action for the planet ”, he summarized Villanueva in his statements.
For his organization, a benchmark in terms of biodiversity, it is about ending this decade "with more nature, not less".
And this is a process that is intrinsically linked to “full recognition of the rights and role of indigenous peoples and local communities, as well as a whole-of-society approach”.
The Amazon factor
There is no possible environmental balance without an explicit mention of the Amazon.
“The Amazon, the lungs of the planet and a bastion in the face of the climate crisis, along with the Cerrado [ecoregion in the tropical savannah of Brazil], have lost 20% of their extension in the last 20 years,” Villanueva said.
The European Union approved in 2022 a law to prevent the importation of agricultural and forestry inputs from deforestation, but this does not allow us to turn back time and recover the 11,000 km2 lost this year in the Amazon.
The numbers do not seem to give rise to optimism, but Lula da Silva's victory in the Brazilian elections and his promise to resume the path of preserving the Amazon was well received by environmental organizations and the international community.
In his new term, he will face challenges that are also new to him, such as his lack of control of Congress by his supporters, but his seemingly firm determination to end illegal deforestation in the rainforest is not without a good omen.
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Technology at the service of the environment: the achievement of nuclear fusion
The year came to an end with good news on the side of scientific advances.
For the first time in history, American specialists have successfully produced a nuclear fusion reaction that has resulted in a net gain of energy.
And what does that have to do?
The result of the experiment would be a giant step forward in the decades-long search for an infinite source of clean energy that could help end reliance on fossil fuels.
There is still a long way to go before it can become a real solution.
Very much.
But it is still one of the pieces of news that allow us to combat that feeling of suffocation given by the figures that, one after another, show us that the most heated speeches have not led to the real change that we no longer have time to avoid.
Will 2023 be the year in which kept promises defeat the relentless advance of negative numbers?
Our future on Earth depends on it.
With reporting from CNN's Ivanna Kottasová, Ella Nilsen, Rachel Ramirez, Rene Marsh, Anna Coren, Radina Gigova, Angela Dewan, Ingrid Formanek, Amy Cassidy, Vasco Cotovio and Paula Newton.
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