There’s a ready supply of bad news in climate circles. The bad news writes itself onto the landscape as the climate destabilises. There’s good news out there too though, and the Global Electricity Review from Ember Climate is a case in point. The main takeaway is that the clean energy transition is well underway globally, with renewable energy making huge strides.
Global solar capacity increased by 23% in 2023, and wind power by 10%.
The ‘what about China’ brigade should note that half of that increase in solar and 60% of wind was added in China. They are very much leading the charge here, as you would expect from a country with such vast energy demands.
Yes, fossil fuel use for electricity generation grew in 2023 as well, but only by 0.8%. Perhaps this will be the last year that it grows at all. We are on the balancing point: the upward curve of fossil fuelled electricity is stuttering, and the downward curve is imminent.
Fossil fuels are already on the way out in many places. “The rollout of clean generation, led by solar and wind, has helped to slow the growth in fossil fuels by almost two-thirds in the last ten years,” says the report. “As a result, half the world’s economies are already at least five years past a peak in electricity generation from fossil fuels.”
Solar and wind are now providing 13.4% of the world’s electricity, up from just 0.2% in the year 2000. Add the world’s hydropower capacity, and clean energy reaches the milestone of 30%. Add nuclear – which is low carbon if not exactly clean – and you’re at 40%.
Oil and gas are going to hang around elsewhere for a while longer, but fossil fuels are being pushed inexorably out of energy generation. Tell your friends. They’ll already have heard the bad news.
The Earthbound Report 