Manmade emissions Photograph:( AFP )
A new research sheds light on global emissions from consumption of fuel and claims that such emissions most likely peaked last year
A new research sheds light on global emissions from consumption of fuel and claims that such emissions most likely peaked last year.
Undertaken by Bloomberg New Energy Finance, the research claims that the demand for power has fallen tremendously in 2020 owing to the slowdown induced by the coronavirus pandemic.
The research was released on Tuesday and is titled ''New Energy Outlook Report''. According to BNEF, emissions from the energy sector have dropped by around 10 per cent in 2020 owing to the ongoing pandemic.
The report also estimates that even if the consumption patterns increase again due to economic recovery, they will never touch 2019 levels.
Following the current trajectory, emissions are expected to fall at a rate of 0.7 per cent year starting 2027 and up to 2050.
This is partly due to the increase in employment of wind and solar power, which has effectively increased the usage of electric vehicles, and has also improved the efficiency of energy across industries.
The report added how wind and solar power would account for 56 per cent of all electricity generated across the world by mid-century.
Coal-based power generation, which is still in usage across the world is expected to peak in China by 2027, and in India by 2030.
Additionaly, oil demand will peak by 2035, and then continue to fall by 0.7 per cent every year, to return to levels in 2018 by 2050.
In terms of fossil fuel-based energy resources, only gas is the one that continues to keep growing, by 0.5 per cent every year.
Even though the transition in terms of energy generation and consumption has continued to progress, the decrease in energy demands triggered by COVID-19 has affected the trajectory.
Even then, the BNEF estimates that the world is set to experience a 3.3 degree Celsius increase in temperature by 2100, which exceeds the agreed limit of below 2 degree Celsius.
"To stay well below two degrees of global temperature rise, we would need to reduce emissions by 6% every year starting now, and to limit the warming to 1.5C, emissions would have to fall by 10% per year," Matthias Kimmel, senior analyst at BNEF told Reuters.