Carbon-free electricity has never been more plentiful. Wind and solar power have taken off over the past two decades, faster than experts ever expected. But it hasn’t yet been enough to halt the rise of coal- and gas-burning generation. That’s because global demand for electricity has grown even faster than clean energy, leaving fossil fuels to fill the gap. The dynamic has pushed up carbon emissions from the power sector at a time when scientists say they need to be falling - and fast - to avoid dangerous levels of global warming. trend Over Last Decade Declining fossil power Mostly clean already Plateau or other trend Rising fossil power Circles are sized by the amount of total power generated by each country in 2021-22. trend Over Last Decade Mostly clean already Declining fossil power Plateau or other trend Rising fossil power Circles are sized by the amount of total power generated by each country in 2021-22. Note: Total generation data is shown through 2022 for the countries that have power generation data available through that year. For others, data is shown through 2021. More information on how the categories were determined can be found at the bottom of this page. Much of the rising power demand has come from rapidly-developing countries like China and India, where new coal plants are still coming online alongside wind and solar farms to power meteoric economic growth. But many industrialized nations are also not moving away from fossil fuels fast enough to meet their stated climate change goals. Even on today’s trajectory, many experts expect that fossil-fueled power will peak globally in the next few years. It’s already falling in major economies like the United States and Europe, and analysts expect China, by far the world’s largest power producer, to begin reducing coal-fired generation... |