Climate change-related droughts dent progress on energy emissions - report
Droughts limiting hydro-electric generation globally prevented a fall in the energy sector’s overall carbon emissions in the first half of 2023 despite the growth of wind and solar power, climate think tank Ember said in a report on Thursday. Total power sector emissions rose by 0.2% in the first half of the year despite wind and solar’s share of the global electricity supply rising to 14.3% over the same period, up 1.5% compared to the first half of 2022, Ember data showed. “While it is encouraging to see the remarkable growth of wind and solar energy, we can’t ignore the stark reality of adverse hydro conditions intensified by climate change,” Ember senior electricity analyst Malgorzata Wiatros-Motyka said. Hydropower output fell by some 177 terawatt-hours (TWh) due to droughts, with China accounting for nearly 75% of this, which prevented emissions from falling, the report said. Carbon emissions would have dropped by 2.9% had hydro power generation stayed flat year-on-year, the data showed. Some fossil fuel production was used to plug the supply gap, with power generation from coal and gas both rising by 8% in China and 8.1% from gas in the United States, Ember data showed. However, low electricity demand growth helped suppress gains in emissions, with the total growth rate just 0.4% compared to the 10-year historic average of 2.6% growth per year. Growth in solar power supply also helped lower total emissions as 104 TWh was added to the global energy mix with 50 countries setting monthly records, the data showed. However, both wind and solar power supply growth remained below 2022 levels in absolute terms, with solar down 28 TWh and wind down 38 TWh, the data showed. A recent International Energy Agency (IEA) report said that renewables will need to grow at a rapid pace and should triple by the end of the decade to reach goals to limit global warming. Reporting by Forrest Crellin; Editing by Alexander Smith Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. Read Next Fortune CEO Alan Murray to step down next year — NYT Alan Murray, chief executive officer of business magazine Fortune, would step down next year, the New York Times reported on Wednesday.
Related Knowledge Center: Climate: water resources
Extreme weather and prolonged drought in some regions are affecting electricity generation — notably hydroelectric and nuclear power.
Related Knowledge Center: ENERGY BASICS: hydropower
Hydropower — electricity generated by turbines capturing energy from moving water — was for many years the primary contributor of renewable energy to the U.S. electricity grid. Its growth was rapid into the 1970s, and since then has offered a stable supply of power, while a declining share of all generation. For many years, hydropower was seen as clean energy and an unalloyed good, but a greater understanding of the impact of dams on ecosystems and wildlife has led to the removal of some dams. As of 2019, hydropower trails wind as a renewable source of power generation.