Global New Energy Demand To Meet, Old Energy Subsidies To Beat

Climate crisis: Fossil fuels still dominate, renewables growth too slow; Despite government promises of a green COVID recovery, a new report says the world missed a "historic chance" to boost clean energy.

Martin Kuebler, 15 June 2022 (DW)

“Even with record growth in renewable energy last year, fossil fuels continue to dominate the world's energy use, with the overall share in global energy consumption rising just under eight percentage points over the last decade…[Despite increased investment, New Energy,] which provided around 20% of the world's energy needs in 2011, accounted for just over 28% in 2021…[According to the June 2022 REN 21 report, the] gains made in 2021 were overshadowed by an estimated 4% rise in energy consumption as the world slowly started to bounce back from COVID lockdowns…

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The result is that carbon dioxide emissions tied to energy soared last year to a record 36.3 billion metric tons — up 6% to their highest level ever…The report did have some good news…[Around $366 billion (€350 billion) was invested in the renewable energy sector in 2021,] rising for the fourth consecutive year. And for the first time, more than 10% of the world's electricity was provided by solar and wind power…

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But those investments paled in comparison to fossil fuel subsidies, which amounted to $18 trillion between 2018 and 2020 — $5.9 trillion in 2020 alone…[and] only 84 countries had economy-wide renewable energy targets, and only 36 for 100% renewables…[Because of Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine,] the European Union agreed earlier this month to ban around 90% of Russian exports of crude and oil products into the bloc over the next eight months…[But certain countries, like Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic,] said they could not entirely stop imports…” click here for more

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