{"id":76524,"date":"2022-10-26T12:05:25","date_gmt":"2022-10-26T16:05:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.carilec.org\/?p=76524"},"modified":"2022-10-26T12:05:25","modified_gmt":"2022-10-26T16:05:25","slug":"renewable-energy-is-slowing-the-rise-of-carbon-emissions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carilec.org\/renewable-energy-is-slowing-the-rise-of-carbon-emissions\/","title":{"rendered":"Renewable Energy Is Slowing the Rise of Carbon Emissions"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Solar panels and wind turbines in China’s Jiangsu province. CFOTO\/Future Publishing via Getty Images<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Global carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels are on track to increase by just under one percent this year, compared to 2021\u2019s total, the\u00a0International Energy Agency<\/a>\u00a0(IEA) said in a\u00a0statement<\/a>\u00a0last week.<\/p>\n

In 2021, planet-warming carbon dioxide\u00a0emissions rose by almost two billion tons compared to the prior year. Now, it appears the world will post an increase of just 300 million tons in 2022.<\/p>\n

Despite rising demand for coal, an expansion of renewable energy and electric vehicles prevented the jump in emissions from being even larger. Renewable energy generation, led by solar and wind development, is set to ramp up by more than 700 terawatt-hours this year, which would be the largest annual rise on record, according to the IEA.<\/p>\n

Since the start of the 20th century, yearly\u00a0carbon dioxide emissions have risen from around\u00a02 billion metric tons<\/a>\u00a0worldwide\u00a0to more than 36 billion metric tons in 2019. Though clean energy successfully stunted the\u00a0world\u2019s emissions growth\u00a0this year, experts say that what\u2019s most challenging\u2014and most crucial\u2014will be turning that growth trend around.<\/p>\n

The world saw a record-setting drop in emissions in 2020 at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, but emissions then increased by nearly 5 percent in 2021, according to Benjamin Storrow of\u00a0E&E News<\/em><\/a>. Now, with people returning to their pre-pandemic travel and commuting routines, oil-related carbon dioxide emissions are set to increase again in 2022, according to the report.<\/p>\n

On the other side of the scale, continuing Covid-19 lockdowns in China have decreased demand for fossil fuels, per\u00a0E&E News<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The pandemic isn\u2019t the only global event that influenced energy use this year. After Russia invaded Ukraine, it withheld natural gas from the international market. Europe\u2019s rush to purchase liquid natural gas increased its price, raising demand for coal instead, per\u00a0E&E News<\/em>. Emissions from coal use are expected to rise by two percent this year.<\/p>\n

But the expansion of renewables has more than offset the increase in coal. The expected rise in renewable electricity should offset at least 600 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, roughly the equivalent of Canada’s annual emissions, writes\u00a0Protocol<\/em><\/a>\u2019s\u00a0<\/em>Michelle Ma.<\/p>\n

Notably, global hydropower output is increasing, and it should contribute one-fifth of the anticipated increase in renewable energy this year, according to the IEA. This boost comes despite droughts in China and Europe, per\u00a0E&E News<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Compared to 2021, the outlook for this year\u2019s climate impact is promising\u2014but in reality, emissions need to be decreasing rapidly in order to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement. The Paris Agreement calls for limiting global temperature increase to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels. Doing so requires cutting the world\u2019s emissions by 45 percent by 2030 and reaching net zero emissions by 2050, according to the\u00a0United Nations<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Representatives will meet in Egypt in less than three weeks for COP27, the 2022\u00a0United Nations Climate Change Conference<\/a>. Countries are expected to discuss keeping their emissions plans in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement, writes\u00a0CNN<\/a>\u2019s Angela Dewan.<\/p>\n

The environmental think tank World Resources Institute published a\u00a0report<\/a>\u00a0Wednesday, which found that emissions are on track to drop by only seven percent by 2030, if countries follow their current plans, according to Frank Jordans of the\u00a0Associated Press<\/a>\u00a0(AP).<\/p>\n

\u201cJust peaking global emissions is the first and easiest step on the road to solving climate change,\u201d\u00a0Zeke Hausfather<\/a>, a climate researcher at the payment processing firm Stripe, tells\u00a0E&E News<\/em>. \u201cWe need to get emissions all the way down to zero, which is much harder.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Will<\/div>\n
\n

Will Sullivan<\/a><\/p>\n

SOURCE: \"\"<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Global carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels are on track to increase by just under one percent this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":165,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"featured_image":"https:\/\/carilec.org\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.svg","month_date":"Oct","day_date":"26","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carilec.org\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carilec.org\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carilec.org\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carilec.org\/api\/wp\/v2\/users\/165"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carilec.org\/api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/carilec.org\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76524\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carilec.org\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carilec.org\/api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carilec.org\/api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}