Sustainable Switch-Global energy CO2 emissions may peak this year
By Sharon Kimathi
Energy and ESG Editor, Reuters Digital
sharon.kimathi@thomsonreuters.com
Hello!
This week closes with a reminder of the focus of this newsletter – whether we’re actually heading towards a sustainable switch. Turns out that we are, but a little too slowly for comfort as various industry bodies warn of the severe need to speed up the journey towards using renewable energy.
An International Energy Agency (IEA) report showed that renewable energy sources are set to meet nearly half of all electricity demand by the end of the decade, but to fall short of a U.N. goal to triple capacityto reduce carbon emissions.
It said the increase is equivalent to the current power capacity of China, the European Union, India and the United States combined, but not enough to meet the target set at the COP28 U.N. climate conference.
For the world to triple capacity, governments need to intensify efforts to integrate renewables into power grids, the IEA said.
This requires the building and modernizing of 25 million kilometers (15.5 million miles) of electricity grids and reaching 1,500 GW of storage capacity by 2030, it added.
This comes as Fitch Ratings warned in a report that decarbonization of the global economy is progressing too slowly and, while there has been improvement among big developed economies, emerging markets have failed to make reductions.
World CO2 emissions rose by 1.8% last year, as world gross domestic product grew 2.9%, the report said.
The ratio of emissions-to-GDP fell by just over 1% during that year, broadly in line with the average annual decline of the previous 25 years and well short of the 8% annual fall required in 2020-2030 to achieve net-zero targets by 2050, the report added.
And finally, a report by consultancy DNV said that global CO2 emissions from the energy sector will likely peak this year due to falling costsfor solar and batteries which are encouraging less coal-fired power and oil use.
Global CO2 emissions rose to a new record high last year, putting a target to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels increasingly out of reach, experts and climate scientists have said.
DNV said even if emissions peak this year, they are cumulative and a slow decline after the peak means warming of 2.2C is the most likely scenario this century.
Keep scrolling for more on the limitations of carbon removal in a paper by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
* Climate Buzz
- Florida counts cost of Hurricane Milton amid political storm
Florida was clearing downed trees and power lines and mopping up flooded neighborhoods after Hurricane Milton roared through leaving at least 16 people dead.
While Milton did not trigger the catastrophic surge of seawater that was feared in Florida, one of many states hit by Hurricane Helene about two weeks ago, the clean-up operation could take many weeks or months for some people.
- Ukraine's vast forests devastated in hellscape of war
Four-fifths of the nearly 12,000 hectares (120 square km) in Sviati Hory national park in eastern Ukraine have been damaged or destroyed by fires or ordnance, officials said. It’s just a small part of the damage caused by the war, which has brutalized the landscape of Ukraine and much of its 10 million hectares of forest. Both Russia and Ukraine’s armies blast thousands of shells at each other every day, shredding the earth in grinding combat that echoes the trench warfare of World War One. Click here for the full Reuters special report.
- Indigenous groups in Brazil: We were not consulted on carbon credits
Indigenous organizations in the Brazilian state of Para said they were not consulted by the government before it signed a deal with multinational companies to sell carbon offset credits to support conservation of the Amazon rainforest in the state. Amazon.com and other firms agreed last month to buy carbon credits valued at $180 million through the LEAF Coalition conservation initiative.
- Carbon removal no solution if world overshoots warming target, scientists say
Even greater efforts to strip carbon dioxide from the atmosphere will fail to avert climate change catastrophe as rising global temperatures threaten to cross a key threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has said. Click here for the full Reuters article.
- UN agency launching platform to help small farmers meet EU deforestation rules
A United Nations trade agency is launching an online platform this month to help small farmers in developing countries maintain access to Europe once new deforestation rules kick in. The rules, which will bar exports of commodities to Europe linked to deforestation, have already seen a reduction in orders to some small farmers in the developing world.
* What to Watch
Edible crickets that supposedly taste like shrimp, a washing machine powered by rowing and mushrooms growing in the shower – this Paris apartment aims to drastically cut carbon emissions and water consumption. Click here to learn more.
* Climate Commentary
- Electric vehicle sales in the United States have soared since the start of 2023, but additional growth may be hindered by a far slower and more uneven rollout of public charging stations, writes Reuters global energy transition columnistGavin Maguire.
- Find out how extreme weather is affecting productivity of the palm oil industry in Southeast Asia, in a feature by Robin Hicks, associate editor of Eco-Business for the Ethical Corp Magazine.
- Ross Kerber, U.S. Sustainable Business Correspondent for Reuters,writes about how JPMorgan Chase & Co CEO Jamie Dimon confronted public pension fund managers about channeling more of their investments into private assets, a trend he said could be at odds with their stated policy concerns. Click here for more.
* Climate Lens
Despite a jump in production, U.S. ethanol stocks dropped
significantly last week, partly owing to a sharp rebound in gasoline demand, which neared three-year highs.
But record exports have been the factor keeping U.S. ethanol supplies in check over the last several months, even as output of the corn-based fuel additive set records of its own.
Click here for the full column by Reuters columnist Karen Braun.
* Number of the Week
$5 million
Pop superstar Taylor Swift gave $5 million to the nonprofit group Feeding America to assist people affected by Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton, according to a social media post from the group.
Implied U.S. ethanol use rate https://tmsnrt.rs/4dDlhs5
Editing by Andrew Heavens
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