The Emissions Gap Report published today by the UN Environment Program (UNEP) described the roll-out of renewable energy technology as an “easy win” in the battle to mitigate global heating but warned clean energy deployment needs to happen six times faster. Otherwise, stated the report, the world will have no hope of keeping temperatures less than 1.5 degrees Celsius hotter than in pre-industrial times.
Whereas the negligible mention of solar power in the party manifestos produced for the looming UK election is a concern, a similar neglect of the subject in this year’s issue of the annual UNEP report is quite the opposite, with the likes of PV, wind and biomass very much part of the mainstream energy mix.
The report notes the record 167 GW of renewable energy generation capacity deployed last year – including 108 GW of solar – and added the $273 billion invested in renewables was around three times more than was spent on coal and gas. However, the report notes, coal, oil and gas still meet 85% of the world’s energy needs.
On course for 3.2C
The headline finding of the report is as gloomy as ever, with the planet on course to be 3.2 degrees Celsius hotter under current policy commitments. Reducing the global temperature rise to a maximum 1.5 degrees Celsius will require greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions – which have risen 1.5% annually in the decade during which the Emissions Gap Report has been published – to fall 7.6% per year for a decade.
In examining the emissions picture in individual nations, the document considers the state of solar. Lack of finance and poor grid infrastructure are delaying renewables capacity in Argentina, states the report, and Australia has been left with “no major policy tool to encourage emissions reductions from the electricity sector in the short-to-medium-term”, thanks to the abandonment last year of the National Energy Guarantee and the lack of raised renewables ambition from next year on. So much for easy wins.
Brazil is lauded for the 3.3 GW of solar deployed since 2015 even if president Jair Bolsonaro’s reckless Amazonian policy makes for grisly reading. India will miss its 175 GW 2022 renewables target thanks to inconsistent taxation and import duties and, similarly, Indonesia is expected to fall short of its 2025 renewables target of hitting 23% of the energy mix, thanks to its plans for new coal capacity.
Failings in Mexico, Saudi and the U.S.
Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador comes in for particular criticism for energy sector reforms tilted towards the gas, coal and oil industries, including cancelling last year’s long-term energy auction and cutting renewables transmission lines.
Saudi Arabia’s habit of talking big without delivering is also noted, in the form of delays to delivery of the Vision 2030 plan launched three years ago and to implementation of a 200 GW solar field backed by Japan’s SoftBank Group. The announcement yesterday of grid connection of the kingdom’s first solar project – the 300 MW Sakaka facility in Al Jawf – is unlikely to deter accusations of renewable energy tardiness in the petrostate.
The UN document takes an admirably dismissive attitude towards the current incumbent of the White House, noting President Trump’s policy direction against regulation of the power industry, acidly highlighting how ineffectual GHG reduction efforts will be compared to those of Barack Obama and adding: “Despite the Trump administration’s actions, market trends have resulted in a significant drop in emissions over the past decade”.
In terms of clean energy-related policy recommendations, Argentina is urged to support the roll-out of small-scale renewables systems; Japan is advised to come up with a plan for a carbon-free energy mix and the EU is urged to fine-tune its strategy; and Brazil, China, and India are all asked to step up their electric vehicle initiatives. The call for the U.S. to implement clean energy standards and introduce carbon pricing for zero-carbon energy is presumably targeted below federal level, for now.
Africa offers hope
Away from the big polluters among the G20 group of industrialized nations, the Emissions Gap Report notes the increasingly widespread adoption of off-grid, often pay-as-you-go financed solar systems in sub-Saharan Africa but says much more could be done to incentivize business opportunities for domestic firms, given the manufacturing value has been had by China and financing and engineering has been claimed by businesses based in OECD nations.
National governments in the developing world have a role to play as well, though – along with multilateral development lenders – with the report highlighting the need for more stable investment environments to enable faster renewable energy use in such parts of the world.
The bottom line is that the world needs to do more, much more, and faster to avoid catastrophic climate change.
As UN secretary-general António Guterres remarked in the press release issued by the UN today to publicize the report: “For ten years, the Emissions Gap Report has been sounding the alarm – and for ten years, the world has only increased its emissions.”
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As strong recomendation it is necessary to make all the possible efforts to deploy hybrid generation renewable systems, to optimize the use of the resources (solar, hidro and eolic)which the Nature is offer daily.
This article is certainly on te right track. I would just like to urge role players to acknowledge that clean energy should exclude dirty batteries – i.e. we should be focussed on clean storage solutions that do not include toxic elements and that are mined in social and health acceptable conditions, which need to exclude lithium batteries. We are creating a pollution issue by not thinking clean about energy storage as well.
How come nearly everyone is looking only toward China for the supplies of photovoltaics without making them ourselves for most part? This is probably exactly what makes the transition toward clean energy so difficult and haltingly…! It is more about where the jobs are.. Sure, we are installing Chinese made photovoltaic, but we are not manufacturing them ourselves as well. Why not? I just read that China just stopped subsidizing photovoltaic manufacturers, so it will probably make it more economical for us to make them ourselves with higher labor costs as well. We also cannot rely soley on cheap Chinese aluminium for the same reasons as well. maybe the costs of clean energy will go up when we start manufacturing more of this ourselves.. This will probably free fossil fuel producers to start raising fossil prices without fear of losing market share to clean energy competitors.. Consumers will probably end up paying more for energy in any form . and shape. We will have inflation! There is probably no way for us to avoid this.. We simply cannot continue to rely so heavily on cheap Chinese made goods to help our wealthy people even richer!
The UK has ratified the Paris climate change protocol by committing to zero carbon emissions by 2050, but does the UK Government realise what an awesome task that will be? In 2018, the UK consumed 2,234 TWh of all energy, but only 110 TWh was green electricity (source UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy) although green electricity was 33% of total generation. As the UK must supply all its power by zero carbon electricity by 2050, the UK must increase its generation by 19 times, ie by 2,124 TWh. It might be possible to increase Green electricity from wind, solar, hydro, tidal etc by say 5 times, to 550 TWh, but the British Isles are already a bit cramped, so the shortfall of 1,684 TWh will have to come from the only other zero carbon source: nuclear. The new Hinkley Point C has a maximum output of 3.2 GW or 28 TWh if it runs at maximum power 24/7 for a year, relying on storing the electricity during off-peak demand (All quite an ask). While the UK will save energy with better insulation, more efficient machines, and extract heat from the ground with heat pumps, the total energy demand is estimated to increase by 30% by 2030, so for the sake of argument, our energy savings will just about balance our increased demand. Which leaves the UK with the need to build 60 nuclear power station like Hinkley Point and have them running by 2050. Quite a challenge, and does anyone with the levers of power, understand this?
No matter how much the US does it will ot be enough
to offset the countrys that do nothing.But cutting millions of acers of trees is reversing the good the US is doing. One acer of trees take out more carbon then
One acer of solar. The panels at Manufacturing transport to jobsite,timbering, excavation of property
Installing equipment,installing not so green