Although the European Union’s electricity demand has almost returned to pre-pandemic levels, CO2 emissions from the European electricity sector were down 12% in the first half of 2021 compared to the same period in 2019 (before the Covid-19 pandemic), says a report published by the think tank Ember on 28 July.
The cause: the continued rise in renewable energy (+11% between the first half of 2019 and the first half of 2021), itself largely due to structural growth in wind and solar energy and strong hydroelectric production, combined with a relative stagnation in electricity production from fossil fuels.
Despite an upturn in the first half of 2020, it remains 10% lower than its pre-pandemic level (in the first half of 2019), the report estimates.
According to the document, the decline of coal continues, with coal-fired power generation down 16% (-36 TWh) from pre-pandemic levels, while fossil gas-fired power generation has fallen by 4%.
While Ember welcomes this development, it also calls for more to be done.
“Clean energy growth will have to double every year to meet the EU’s 2030 climate targets”, said Charles Moore, an analyst at Ember.
On the cost side, the report points out that it is now twice as expensive to generate electricity from existing fossil gas and coal-fired power plants than from new wind and solar power plants.
See the report: https://bit.ly/3780kWC (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)