The independent energy think-tank Ember published its 4th annual report on global energy today and that’s the big take-away from their findings. The UK organization, founded in 2008, is widely respected for its quantitative analysis. The new report got write-ups in Carbonbrief, Reuters, Euronews, CNN, and more.
Key take-aways:
- Wind & solar hit 12% of global electricity in 2022
- Growth year over year for wind and solar of 19%, solar alone 24%
- 2022 forecast to be the ‘peak’ of emissions in the global power sector
Here’s a key chart.
What’s your reaction? Are you hopeful? Overwhelmed? Inspired? Are you focused on key obstacles? Opportunities?
A chart that predicts the decline of fossil fuels is worth celebrating! I appreciate small wins, including and especially mindset ones. At the same time, it feels incredibly important to hold wind and solar producers accountable so we don’t recreate similar problems under a new name. I’d love to see projects utilizing the Solar Climate Justice Scorecard that the Community Climate Collaborative developed (and having something similar for wind power), and noting that utility-scale power plants shouldn’t be the focus. Recent research shows that solar can meet the world’s electricity demands using only .3 percent of available land. Projects should simultaneously benefit ecosystems and local communities through agrivoltaics, solar meadows, green rooftops, etc. These are proving to be more successful than conventional assumptions.
Sarah that is like the best comment ever.
Neat, here is a link to the Web page at CCC which has a link to the Scorecard PDF on it https://theclimatecollaborative.org/solar-climate-justice-scorecard
Yes, I LOVE that scorecard so much! Thanks for adding the link Brian.