Thursday 20 October 2022

Slow growth in global energy-related CO2 emissions

The carbon intensity of the global energy supply will not grow as much as previously expected this year.

This is the key finding conveyed in a new report by the International Energy Agency (IEA), which suggests that global carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel combustion will grow by under 1% this year, only a small fraction of their increase in 2021.

The IEA estimates that global carbon dioxide emissions will increase by nearly 300 million tonnes this year to 33.8 billion tonnes.

This translates to a smaller rise than their jump of around two billion tonnes last year, the report suggests.

The Paris-based intergovernmental organisation attributes this year's slow growth to the expansion of the global renewable energy capacity and the accelerated rollout of electric vehicles.

IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said: "The global energy crisis triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has prompted a scramble by many countries to use other energy sources to replace the natural gas supplies that Russia has withheld from the market.

"The encouraging news is that solar and wind are filling much of the gap, with the uptick in coal appearing to be relatively small and temporary

"This means that carbon dioxide emissions are growing far less quickly this year than some people feared - and that policy actions by governments are driving real structural changes in the energy economy."