Think tank Ember published a report on 29 March that indicates that the growth in renewable energies in 2020 has helped bring about a record fall in coal as a result of the decrease in electricity demand caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to this report, electricity generation from wind turbines and solar panels thus rose by 15% (+314 TWh) last year, while generation from coal fell by 4% (-346 TWh).
Although this fall in coal is good news in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, Ember cautions that it was only possible because the pandemic paused the growing demand for electricity.
Moreover, the International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that coal-fired electricity generation would have to fall by 14% each year for the world to reach the target of net-zero emissions in 2050—a level far from being attained.
“As electricity demand resumes and increases, the world will need to do a lot more to ensure coal keeps falling”, stated Dave Jones, the report’s author. In particular, he criticises China, India, and the United States, where coal-fired electricity generation is already on the rise again in 2021. It did not even fall in China in 2020 (+2%).
See the report: https://bit.ly/3u58Oai (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)