By John Burr, Jacksonville Climate Coalition
In the climate sphere, we’ve got to celebrate good news.
Here goes: “The renewables revolution – led by solar and wind – is breaking records and driving ever-cleaner electricity production. The world is now at a turning point where solar and wind not only slow emissions growth, but actually start to push fossil generation into decline,” according to the Global Electricity Review 2024 executive summary
I’ve written before about the surge in clean energy, and the consistent efforts of the oil and gas industry and some politicians (yes, you, Gov. Ron DeSantis) to stifle the clean energy surge.
Those efforts to throw shade on the rise of clean energy are not based in fact, as this recent report shows clearly:
- Growth in generating electricity with solar and wind in 2023 meant that for the first time, 30% of the electricity produced around the world was clean energy.
- The primary reason behind the surge in solar power is economic. Solar power is the cheapest way to generate new electrical power around the world, and that cost is steadily falling.
- China is leading the world in bringing clean energy online. China was responsible for 63% of the solar additions worldwide in 2023, and 65% of wind. This was a record high share and a significant increase from installing 43% of global solar additions in 2022 and 48% of wind.
- The report forecasts that fossil fuel use around the world has peaked, and that a continued decline can be expected far into the future, as the costs of solar and wind power, and electrical battery storage continue to fall.
- The increased use of wind and solar to generate electricity for utilities is critical to achieve the needed increase in clean electric power required to power electric vehicles, heat pumps, electrolysers for hydrogen production, air conditioning and data centers.
- These are some of the highlights of the report. There’s a lot more here for climate nerds to get excited about.
And there’s more…
Canary Media reports that this year more than $1 trillion will be spent of building clean energy, nearly double what will be invested in oil, coal and gas in 2024, citing the International Energy Agency’s new report “World Energy Investment 2024.”
Again, the reason is the continued fall in the cost of solar power and wind, coupled with the growing number of countries that are promoting green energy.
The big picture:
We’re finally on the right track, the trends are favorable. Yet there’s no room for complacency in efforts to reduce and eventually eliminate the burning of coal, oil and gas for energy.
We have damaged our planet, and we have to stop to avoid an ever-worsening climate crisis. These promising trends show that is possible. It will also be difficult because the scale of the transition needed to eliminate fossil fuel use is daunting.
John Burr is the editor of the Jacksonville Climate Coalition newsletter. He also writes a Substack newsletter called Radical Green Zealots. Subscribe at johnburr.substack.com.
If you are interested in submitting an opinion piece to The Invading Sea, email Editor Nathan Crabbe at ncrabbe@fau.edu. Sign up for The Invading Sea newsletter by visiting here.
