Even a record year for the spread of renewables is not enough to stop global warming

By: Trademagazin Date: 2024. 10. 30. 10:52

Hungary’s solar cell capacity has developed spectacularly in recent years, and by 2023 it already exceeded the previously set 2030 goal. Currently, nearly 7,850 MW of renewable electricity production capacity is available. Globally, however, the lag in efforts to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement is frightening. Although renewable energy capacity is set to increase by a record 14% globally in 2023, the 1.5% increase in fossil energy use is a cause for concern, according to PwC’s Net Zero Economy Index survey.

Findings of our energy experts related to the survey:

Although renewable energy capacity is growing all over the world, fossil fuels still dominate global energy consumption.

The structural transformation of the energy supply and the increase of the proportion of climate-neutral solutions are of critical importance, but they are not sufficient to meet the climate goals, because the demand for energy is growing faster than the amount of green energy produced by new renewable capacities.

An increasingly drastic improvement in carbon dioxide intensity (in terms of CO2/GDP), i.e. decarbonization, would be necessary to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement.

While an average annual decarbonization rate of 15.2% before last year and 17.2% last year would have been desirable to stop the process, this year this value has already increased to 20.4%.

Last year, renewable energy capacity set a record, reaching 3,870 gigawatts (GW) by 14%.

At the same time, the proportion of fossil fuels also increased (by 1.5%), to 16,007 GW, and the global energy carrier factor, which measures carbon dioxide emissions per unit of energy consumption, also increased by 0.07%.

Today, approximately 7,100 MW of solar power plant capacity is available in our country.

Industrial-scale grid-generating power plants account for nearly a quarter of the gross domestic electricity production and a fifth of the total gross electricity consumption.

In its revised NEKT draft, the Ministry of Energy aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50% by 2030, and increases the share of renewable energy sources from the previous 21% to 29%.

Recent joint research by PwC and the World Economic Forum found that current technology could reduce global energy demand by nearly a third (31%) without holding back economic output.

“Renewable energy is expected to become the largest source of electricity by 2025, but the “catch-up” energy demand of emerging economies, the rapid spread of air conditioners, the unstoppably increasing energy consumption of transport, and even the data centers behind artificial intelligence-based solutions are all expected to increase the power consumption. Without developing energy efficiency and significantly managing the “pattern” of demand, i.e. adapting it to the supply of renewable energy, the place and time of its production, these factors can extinguish the benefits from the spread of renewables, and thus fossil energy sources will remain unavoidable”

– emphasized Beáta Szoboszlai, head of PwC Hungary’s energy industry and utility service consulting team.