Wind and solar energy generated 12% of world electricity in 2022

The wind and solar sectors generated 12% of the world’s electricity in 2022, a record level, although always lagging behind coal, which remains the main source of energy, according to a report by Ember, a think tank.

The invasion of Ukraine by Russia in February 2022, with the consequent closure of Russian gas pipelines and the skyrocketing of prices led governments to seek alternatives in energy with lower carbon emissions.

“All clean sources of electricity [tanto las renovables como la nuclear] reached 39% of world electricity, a new record”, and the rest comes from fossil fuels (gas, oil and coal), highlight the authors of the report.

Counted separately, wind and solar power also set a record, at 12%. In 2015, it represented only 5% of the total.

Currently, renewables account for more than 10% of global energy production in 60 countries.

The sector received a strong boost from the European Union (EU), where it represents 22% of the total, up 24% compared to 2021.

This made it possible to limit the use of coal, which still registered an increase of 1.1% in total electricity production, according to this fourth annual report from Ember, based on public data from 78 countries that represent 93% of demand. electricity world.

“Despite the advances [de las renovables]coal remains the world’s largest source of electricity, generating 36% of world electricity”, underlines the report.

That persistent recourse to gas and coal also led to “a record level emissions” of greenhouse gases, which reached 12,000 million tons of CO2 equivalent last year (+1.3%), underlines the document.

The authors of the report consider with everything that 2022 could mark “a cap on emissions related to the electricity sector and the last year of growth of fossil fuelsin that sector.

By 2023 they anticipate “a weak decrease in production of fossil origin (-0.3%), with more significant drops in subsequent years, as wind and solar deployment accelerate”.

“This decisive decade for the climate marks the beginning of the end of the fossil age” says in a statement one of the authors of the report, Malgorzata Wiatros-Motyka.

Source: AFP