The IEA – a Paris-based advisor to the OECD on energy issues – noted preliminary data suggested new sources of renewable energy were the driving force in greenhouse gas emissions decoupling from economic growth.
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The International Energy Agency has reported that Carbon dioxide emissions from energy activities such as power generation and transport have remained unchanged for the second year running – even as the global economy grew.
According to the figures, which will be included in the IEA’s annual World Energy Outlook report at the end of June, renewables “accounted for roughly 90 percent of new electricity generation in 2015”, with wind alone producing more than half of that new power.
“This latest data from the IEA unequivocally confirm a message that The Climate Group has been highlighting for many years: that addressing climate change does not mean damaging the economy”, said Mark Kenber, CEO, The Climate Group.
During the same period, the global economy continued to grow by more than 3% in 2015, the IEA said.
“Coming just a few months after the landmark (climate) agreement in Paris, this is yet another boost to the global fight against climate change”, Birol said.
But this was offset by increased emissions in other Asian countries, the Middle East and, to a less extent, in Europe, keeping the overall emissions level flat, the IEA said. They have remained the biggest polluters in the past, and reportedly their emissions have been falling steadily for the last two years. Three of those – in the early 1980s, 1992 and 2009 – were associated with global economic weakness, it said.
The recent pause in emissions growth is different, since it comes during a time of economic expansion.
The IEA and the Global Carbon Project, an worldwide group of climate researchers, have now independently concluded that China’s emissions appear to have declined in 2015.
In the U.S., emissions declined by 2%, as a large switch from coal to natu- ral gas use in electricity generation took place.
In China, it is due to a reduction in burning of coal and the rising contribution of wind, solar and hydroelectricity.
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“China’s energy structure in the future will be much more diverse than it is now”. If GDP goes up, so does the burning of oil, coal, and natural gas. China’s coal consumption declined for the second year in a row as the government grapples with horrific air pollution.
