Climate, IEA:“CO2 emissions at record level, but they could have been three times higher”

New IEA analysis shows that the implementation of clean energy technologies over the past five years has substantially limited the increase in demand for fossil fuels

ROME – Le global energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions have increased less strongly in 2023 than in the previous year, although growth in total energy demand has accelerated, as shown by a new analysis by the International Energy Agency - IEA, the International Energy Agency, with the continued expansion of solar photovoltaics, wind power, nuclear power and electric cars helping the world avoid greater use of fossil fuels.“Without clean energy technologies, the global increase in CO2 emissions over the past five years would have been three times greater“, specifies IEA.

“Emissions increased by 410 million tonnes, or 1.1%, in 2023 – compared to an increase of 490 million tonnes the previous year – bringing them to a record level of 37.4 billion tonnes,” he points out. the agency.
An exceptional shortage of hydropower due to extreme droughts – in China, the United States and several other economies – resulted in a more than 40% increase in emissions in 2023, as countries largely turned to alternatives to fossil fuels to fill the gap.“If not for unusually low hydroelectric power generation, global CO2 emissions from electricity production would have fallen last year, making the overall increase in energy-related emissions significantly lower,” the IEA reports.

Advanced economies saw a record drop in CO2 emissions in 2023, even as their GDP grew, IEA finds.Their emissions have fallen to their lowest level in 50 years, while demand for coal has fallen to levels not seen since the early 1900s.“The decline in emissions from advanced economies was driven by a combination of strong diffusion of renewable energy, the shift from coal to gas, improvements in energy efficiency and weaker industrial production,” the agency specifies.Last year was the first in which at least half of electricity production in advanced economies came from low-emission sources such as renewables and nuclear.

From 2019 to 2023, clean energy growth was double that of fossil fuels.New IEA analysis shows that the implementation of clean energy technologies over the past five years has substantially limited the increase in demand for fossil fuels, providing the opportunity to accelerate the transition away from them this decade.
The deployment of wind and solar photovoltaic energy in electricity systems around the world since 2019 has been sufficient to avoid annual coal consumption equivalent to that of the electricity sectors of India and Indonesia combined and to make a dent in annual gas demand natural gas by an amount equivalent to the export of methane from Russia to the European Union in the period before the invasion of Ukraine.
The growing number of electric cars on the roads, with one in five new car sales globally electric in 2023, has also played a significant role in preventing oil demand (in terms of energy content) from rising above pre-pandemic levels.

The Clean Energy Market Monitor of the IEA shows that clean energy deployment remains overly concentrated in advanced economies and China, highlighting 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 installations globally and 95% of electric vehicle sales.
Not all clean energy technologies have made progress in 2023.Heat pump sales fell marginally as pressured consumers curbed purchases of high-value items, highlighting the importance of continued political support for just transitions.

THE'China's implementation of clean energy technology continued to grow and added as much solar PV capacity in 2023 as the entire world would have in 2022.However, a historically bad year for hydropower production and the continued reopening of its economy after the pandemic pushed China's emissions, which grew in 2023 by about 565 million tons.
In India, however, strong GDP growth has increased emissions by around 190 million tonnes in 2023.A weaker-than-normal monsoon has increased electricity demand and cut hydropower generation, contributing a quarter of India's total emissions rise.However, per capita emissions in India still remain far below the global average.