News Energy
Renewable energy is barely gaining ground
Little has changed in the global energy supply in nearly 50 years. This is according to new statistics from the International Energy Agency (IEA). Striking is the still great dependence on fossil fuels. At the same time, current developments in solar and wind do offer perspective.
If you compare the figures from the IEA for 1973 with the figures today, you can draw a positive conclusion: the world has become less dependent on oil. The share of oil in the global energy supply fell from 50% to 46,2% in just under 31,6 years. The other side of the coin is that the consumption of coal and natural gas has increased.
The demand for and supply of coal has increased worldwide in recent decades. Asia-Pacific has an important share in this. In 2018, the region accounted for 75% of the demand and 73% of the coal supply, according to the World Economic Forum.
Natural gas as a transition fuel
And despite the effort to become less dependent on natural gas, this share has also increased. In 2018, 22,8% of the global energy supply was natural gas. That is an increase of 6,8 percentage points since 1973.
One explanation may be that natural gas has increasingly replaced coal, for example for generating electricity and heating. Natural gas is also seen as a 'transition fuel' to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Compared to coal, the carbon dioxide emissions from natural gas are up to 50% lower, according to the IEA.
Global demand for nuclear energy also increased between 1973 and 2018. The stock rose by 4 percentage points. The share of biofuels and waste shows a slight decrease of 1,2 percentage points.
Renewable energy limited
The share of other energy sources, including wind and solar, has also increased. While this accounted for only 1973% of the global energy supply in 0,1, it had increased to 2018% in 2. Compared to the demand for fossil fuels, however, it remains a small share.
The energy transition worldwide therefore needs a major boost to achieve the goals of the Climate Agreement and to combat global warming. The dot on the horizon is a CO2-neutral world. And towards 2050 the biggest steps must have been taken. Policies are being introduced in many parts of the world to this end and they are now slowly bearing fruit.
Share of wind and sun is growing
Europe is at the forefront of the transition to renewable energy. In the first half of 2020, more than 20% of the energy in Europe was generated from wind and solar. According to the six-monthly analysis of Ember† Denmark, Ireland and Germany are the frontrunners in Europe. Russia is so far the largest country shunning wind and sun, with only 0,2% of its electricity from wind and sun.
In August, Ember collected data from 48 countries that account for 83% of global electricity production. This shows that the generation of wind and solar energy increased by 14% in the first half of 2020 compared to the first 6 months in 2019. In total, almost 10% of global electricity was generated via solar and wind. Large countries such as China, the United States, India, Japan and Brazil are around that share.
Positive impact of the corona crisis
Global coal production fell 2020% in the first half of 8,3 compared to the same period last year. This was partly due to lower electricity demand as a result of the corona crisis. Experts expect this to be partly a lasting change. The IEA predicts a decline for 2020 of 6% in energy demand and 8% in CO2 emissions.
Jeanette Pennings
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