Demand for electricity is rising faster than renewables

Demand for electricity is rising faster than deployment and production from renewable sources. This leads to a sharp increase in the use of heavily polluting coal and undermines efforts to achieve carbon neutrality. The International Energy Agency (IEA) pointed this out on Thursday. According to her, the demand for electricity is expected to increase by five percent this year after a decline of one percent last year, when the global economy fell into recession due to restrictions to stop the new coronavirus pandemic. "Electricity production from renewable sources continues to grow strongly, but it is unable to keep pace with rising demand," the agency wrote in its half-yearly report on the electricity market. In 2020, the production of so-called renewable energy increased by seven percent. The IEA expects it to grow by eight percent this year and by more than six percent next year. "Despite this increase, renewables are expected to be able to cover only about half of the projected increase in global demand in 2021 and 2022," the report said, adding that fossil fuel power plants were likely to cover the rest. Coal-fired power plants, whose emissions are particularly harmful to the environment and contribute to global warming, are expected to exceed pre-pandemic levels in production this year. In 2022, they could reach a record high. This will lead to increased emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), a gas that contributes to global warming and could thus reach record levels in 2022. While more and more countries have pledged to reduce emissions to zero by the middle of the century in order to limit climate change, according to IEA calculations, emissions from the energy sector must start to fall now in order to achieve this goal. At the same time, coal consumption must be reduced by more than six percent per year. "Stronger policy action is needed to achieve climate goals," the IEA said. Although renewable energy is growing at an impressive rate, "it is still not at the level needed to achieve zero net emissions by the middle of the century," said Keisuke Sadamori, IEA's head of energy markets and security. "To move towards a sustainable trajectory, we need to massively step up investment in clean energy technologies - especially renewables and energy efficiency," he added. A major climate summit is due to take place later this year.