Clean energy deployment slowing growth in CO2 emissions: IEA

Global energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions hit a new record last year, but the rate of increase slowed on the back of major growth in the deployment of clean energy technologies, according to analysis from the International Energy Agency (IEA).

Emissions increased by 410 million tonnes (t) of CO2, or 1.1%, in 2023, compared with a rise of 490 million tCO2 the previous year, taking them to a record level of 37.4 billion tCO2, the IEA said.

“An exceptional shortfall in hydropower due to extreme droughts – in China, the United States and several other economies – resulted in over 40% of the rise in emissions in 2023 as countries turned largely to fossil fuel alternatives to plug the gap,” it said.

“Had it not been for the unusually low hydropower output, global CO2 emissions from electricity generation would have declined last year, making the overall rise in energy-related emissions significantly smaller,” IEA added.

With emissions growth lagging GDP growth, global CO2 emissions “are therefore undergoing a structural slowdown even as global prosperity grows”, the IEA said, adding that “clean energy is at the heart of this slowdown in emissions”.

The scope of CO2 emissions in the IEA’s report includes emissions from all uses of fossil fuels for energy purposes, including the combustion of non-renewable waste, as well as emissions from industrial processes such as cement, iron and steel, and chemicals production.

The IEA said its analysis shows that the deployment of clean energy technologies in the past five years has substantially limited increases in demand for fossil fuels, providing the opportunity to accelerate the transition away from them this decade.

But, it added, “clean energy deployment remains overly concentrated in advanced economies and China, highlighting the need for greater international efforts to increase clean energy investment and deployment in emerging and developing economies”.

Global capacity additions of wind and solar PV reached a record almost 540 GW in 2023, up 75% on the level of 2022, while global sales of electric cars climbed to around 14 million, an increase of 35% from the previous year.

“Clean energy is having a significant impact on the trajectory of global CO2 emissions,” the IEA said.

In 2023, advanced economies and China accounted for 90% of new solar photovoltaic and wind power plants globally and 95% of sales of electric vehicles, the group noted.

This concentration is reflected in the emissions data, with advanced economies seeing a record fall in their energy-related CO2 emissions in 2023, even as their GDP grew.

Their emissions dropped to a 50-year low while coal demand fell back to levels not seen since the early 1900s,’’ the IEA said, adding that the decline was driven by a combination of strong renewables deployment, coal-to-gas switching, energy efficiency improvements and softer industrial production.

“Last year was the first in which at least half of electricity generation in advanced economies came from low-emissions sources like renewables and nuclear,” the IEA said.

China’s deployment of clean energy technology “continued to surge ahead as it added as much solar PV capacity in 2023 than the entire world did in 2022”, it noted.

But, it added, “a historically bad year for hydropower output and the continued reopening of its economy after the pandemic drove up China’s emissions”, which grew by around 565 million t in 2023.

“The landscape of emissions continues to change”, with China’s total CO2 emissions 15% higher than those of the advanced economies in 2023, while India surpassed the EU to become the third-largest source of global emissions in 2023, the IEA said.

Countries in developing Asia now account for around half of global emissions, up from around two-fifths in 2015 and around one‑quarter in 2000, while China alone accounts for 35% of global CO2 emissions.