• About
    • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Climate News Network Archive
  • Contact
The climate news that makes a difference.
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
  FEATURED
BP Predicts Faster Oil and Gas Decline as Clean Energy Spending Hits $1.1T in 2022 January 31, 2023
Canada Needs Oil and Gas Emissions Cap to Hit 2030 Goal: NZAB January 31, 2023
Ecuador’s Amazon Drilling Plan Shows Need for Fossil Non-Proliferation Treaty January 31, 2023
Rainforest Carbon Credits from World’s Biggest Provider are ‘Largely Worthless’, Investigation Finds January 31, 2023
Danske Bank Quits New Fossil Fuel Financing January 23, 2023
Next
Prev

IEA Projects Alarming 5% Growth in CO2 Emissions This Year

April 21, 2021
Reading time: 4 minutes
Primary Author: Bill Eggertson @renewablesca

Owen Byrne/Flickr

Owen Byrne/Flickr

 

Renewable energy is the success story of the COVID-19 era, but the global economic recovery may see energy-related carbon dioxide emissions rise by nearly 5% this year, their second-largest annual increase ever, the International Energy Agency (IEA) warned in a report this week.

Global demand for renewable energy grew 3% last year, and it will increase again this year across all key sectors (power, heating, industry, transport). Demand for green power will expand 8%, the largest year-on-year growth on record in absolute terms, states the IEA’s Global Energy Review 2021. Renewables will provide half of the increase in global electricity this year, with solar photovoltaics and wind contributing two-thirds of the total growth in renewables.

  • Be among the first to read The Energy Mix Weekender
  • A brand new weekly digest containing exclusive and essential climate stories from around the world.
  • The Weekender:The climate news you need.
New!
Subscribe

But the IEA expects global greenhouse gas emissions to hit 33 gigatonnes (Gt, or billion tonnes) this year, nearly a 5% increase from 2020, and the largest annual increase in a decade, Reuters reports.

“This is shocking and very disturbing,” IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol told The Guardian. “On the one hand, governments today are saying climate change is their priority. But on the other hand, we are seeing the second-biggest emissions rise in history. It is really disappointing.”

Global GHG emissions fell 7% last year, “owing to the lockdowns that followed the COVID-19 outbreak. But by the end of the year, they were already rebounding, and on track to exceed 2019 levels in some areas,” The Guardian says. “The IEA’s projections for 2021 show emissions are likely to end this year still down slightly on 2019 levels, but on a rising path. Next year there could be even stronger rises as air travel returns, Birol added. Aviation would normally contribute more than 2% of global emissions, but has been almost absent this past year.”

Birol renewed his previous calls for a green recovery from the pandemic. “Last year, I expressed my hope that the economic recovery from COVID-19 should be green and sustainable,” he told The Guardian. “But these numbers indicate that this recovery is currently anything but sustainable for our climate.”

Like other recent analysis, the IEA release shows the decline in global demand for electricity in 2020 accompanied by record growth of renewables, led by wind at 12% and solar PV at 23%. Wind power will grow this year by 17% while solar PV will rise by 18%, it adds.

The share of green power will increase to 30% of world electricity this year, the highest since the start of the Industrial Revolution and up from its 27% share in 2019. Increases in output from wind and solar in China, the European Union, and the United States will, in aggregate, represent three-quarters of the global output from the two technologies.

Hydropower generation will increase in 2021, energy-from-waste power projects in Asia will drive growth of bioenergy, while the market for biofuels will recover and approach 2019 production levels, the report predicts.

Global energy demand has been dampened by the pandemic, but stimulus packages and vaccine rollouts “provide a beacon of hope” that economic output will rebound 6% this year, the IEA says. A 2% boost in global GDP over 2019 will result in significant growth in demand for all fossil fuels which, in turn, will result in a 5% rise in emissions that will reverse 80% of the 2020 decline, although the IEA predicts emissions will be 1.2% below 2019 levels.

Global CO2 emissions declined 5.8% in 2020, the largest decline ever and five times greater than the 2009 drop that followed the global financial crisis. Emissions fell farther than energy demand, as the pandemic hit the market for oil and coal harder than other energy sources.

Despite that drop, global energy-related CO2 emissions remained at 31.5 Gt, with CO2 reaching its highest-ever average annual concentration in the atmosphere of 412.5 parts per million in 2020, the IEA notes. This year, the Paris-based agency sees global energy-related CO2 emissions growing by 4.8% as demand for coal, oil, and gas rebounds with the economy, and the increase of 1,500 Mt.

Among fossil fuels this year, natural gas will mark the biggest increase relative to 2019 as demand grows 3.2%, putting global demand 1% above 2019 levels. Demand in the United States, the world’s largest natural gas market, will be squeezed by the continuing growth of renewables and rising natural gas prices, while globally, electricity generation from natural gas remains below 2019 levels.

“The pace of global vaccine rollouts, the possible emergence of new variants of the COVID-19 virus, and the size and effectiveness of economic stimulus measures all represent major uncertainties for the outlook,” cautions the IEA. “This analysis therefore not only charts a possible path for energy use and CO2 emissions in 2021 but also highlights the many factors that could lead to differing outcomes.”



in Bioenergy, Carbon Levels & Measurement, Climate & Society, Coal, COP Conferences, Energy / Carbon Pricing & Economics, Fossil Fuels, Hydropower, International Agencies & Studies, Oil & Gas, Renewable Energy, Solar, Wind

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

Mike Mozart/Flickr
Ending Emissions

BP Predicts Faster Oil and Gas Decline as Clean Energy Spending Hits $1.1T in 2022

January 31, 2023
324
Gina Dittmer/PublicDomainPictures
Canada

Canada Needs Oil and Gas Emissions Cap to Hit 2030 Goal: NZAB

January 31, 2023
196
CONFENIAE
Ending Emissions

Ecuador’s Amazon Drilling Plan Shows Need for Fossil Non-Proliferation Treaty

January 31, 2023
61

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Trending Stories

Mike Mozart/Flickr

BP Predicts Faster Oil and Gas Decline as Clean Energy Spending Hits $1.1T in 2022

January 31, 2023
324
jasonwoodhead23/flickr

Canada, U.K., U.S. Must Cut Oil and Gas 76% by 2030 to Keep 1.5° Alive, New Analysis Finds

March 23, 2022
505
Green Energy Futures/Flickr

Australian Suburb Connects Community Battery to Rooftop Solar

May 3, 2022
10
Sam Balto/YouTube

Elementary School’s Bike Bus Brings ‘Sheer Joy’ to Portland Neighbourhood

October 16, 2022
259
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_fracturing

U.S. Emissions Grow Only Slightly, Offer Hope for Meeting Paris Targets

January 12, 2023
79
EcoAnalytics

Albertans Want a Just Transition, Despite Premier’s Grumbling

January 23, 2023
324

Recent Posts

Gina Dittmer/PublicDomainPictures

Canada Needs Oil and Gas Emissions Cap to Hit 2030 Goal: NZAB

January 31, 2023
196
CONFENIAE

Ecuador’s Amazon Drilling Plan Shows Need for Fossil Non-Proliferation Treaty

January 31, 2023
61
Ken Teegardin www.SeniorLiving.Org/flickr

Virtual Power Plants Hit an ‘Inflection Point’

January 31, 2023
125
/snappy goat

Rainforest Carbon Credits from World’s Biggest Provider are ‘Largely Worthless’, Investigation Finds

January 31, 2023
94
Victorgrigas/wikimedia commons

World Bank Climate Reforms Too ‘Timid and Slow,’ Critics Warn

January 31, 2023
42
Doc Searls/Twitter

Guilbeault Could Intervene on Ontario Greenbelt Development

January 31, 2023
132
Next Post
U.S. Department of Agriculture/Flickr

Over 50 Million People ‘Doubly Hit’ by Pandemic, Climate Disasters: WMO

The Energy Mix - The climate news you need

Copyright 2023 © Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy and Copyright
  • Cookie Policy

Proudly partnering with…

scf_withtagline
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}