By Jack Dini ——Bio and Archives--July 12, 2023
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The world set a new record for energy use in the last year. And even though renewables are being installed at the fastest rate they have ever been, it isn't enough to keep up with the growing demand for energy let alone to 'convert' the world to net zero. (1)
Overall, despite the best efforts to wean ourselves off fossil fuels, the world remains 'stuck' getting 82% of its energy from them. We are a fossil fueled world. Solar and wind power make up just 6% of our energy needs.
The Energy Institute has released the Statistical Review of World Energy, and it shows global energy use has not only recovered from the pandemic, it is now 3% higher than it was pre-Covid. The relentless human desire for energy continues. In 2022, humans used 1% more energy than they did the year before and 70% of that growth was from China. (2)
Greenhouse gas emissions from homo sapiens reached 39.3 billion tons of carbon dioxide equivalent. An increase of 0.8% in the last year. Total renewables are 7.5% of primary energy but includes biomass, geothermal, and tidal (but not hydro). Stripping away the other renewables leaves wind plus solar at 6.1%. Wind power now makes 3.75% of total global primary energy. Solar makes 2.4%.
The Energy Institute is the chartered professional membership body for people who work across the world of energy. Their purpose is to create a better energy future for its members and society by accelerating a just global energy transition to net zero. So as pointed out in reference 1, when such a body of activists points out that unreliables are achieving nothing, it is a hell of a tacit admission of total failure and pointlessness of activism since a look at those running the Energy Institute show a bunch of activists that are fully sold on the climate emergency fantasy. (1)
United States is eliminating coal. Not so in many places.
China permitted more coal power plants last year than any time in the last seven years. It's the equivalent of about two new coal power plants per week, The country has quadrupled the amount of new coal power approvals in 2022 compared to 2021. (3)
China last year approved the largest expansion of coal fired power plants since 2015 despite its vow to begin phasing down the use of fossil fuel in just three years. The coal power capacity that China began building in 2022 was six times as much as the rest of the world combined. (4)
Nationwide fossil fuels generate more than 70% of India's electricity and have been doing so for decades. (5)
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's green coalition gave the green light to restart 27 coal fired power plants until March 2024.This is quite a turnaround for a country that shunned all fossil fuels for the last three decades, shutting down its nuclear plants after the Fukushima incident as well as its coal and natural gas plants for their high carbon footprints. (6)
At the end of last year, overall fossil fuel represented 81% of energy consumption. Ten years ago, they were at 82%. So $3.8 trillion of investment in renewables moved fossil fuels from 82% to 81% of the overall energy consumption. It is apparent that renewable energy is not going anywhere fast.
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Jack Dini is author of Challenging Environmental Mythology. He has also written for American Council on Science and Health, Environment & Climate News, and Hawaii Reporter.