The share of fossil fuels in energy consumption has not decreased for 10th consecutive year. This is according to a new global renewables report by REN21 (Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century). The Renewables 2021 Global Status Report by REN21 says that the share of fossil fuels in the total energy mix is as high as a decade ago (80.3 per cent vs. 80.2 per cent now) and the renewable energy share only increased slightly.
Reacting to this Rana Adib, REN21’s Executive Director, said: “We are waking up to the bitter reality that the climate policy promises over the past ten years have mostly been empty words. The share of fossil fuels in final energy consumption has not moved by an inch.
“Phasing them out and making renewables the new norm are the strongest actions we can take.”
According to the report, even with the historic decline in energy consumption in 2020, the five G20 countries with 2020 renewable energy targets struggled toward their goals. The other 15 did not even have one.
In a release, REN21 stated that 2020 could have been a gamechanger. Economies worldwide were ravaged by the COVID-19 pandemic. Primary energy demand fell by 4%. But even with this historic decline, G20 countries, the planet’s biggest polluters, barely met or even missed their unambitious renewable energy targets. But the benefits of renewables in terms of health, climate and job creation are indisputable.
It said the report shows that we are nowhere near the necessary paradigm shift towards a clean, healthier and more equitable energy future.
The report notes that there has been a wave of stronger commitments to action on the climate crisis in 2020. This includes net zero carbon emissions targets by China, Japan and South Korea. Together with announcements of funding for a green economic recovery, taking public spending to levels higher than the Marshall Plan after World War II, this should have made 2020 the year when the world pushed the reset button for the global climate economy and renewables.
But instead of driving transformation, recovery packages provide six times more investment to fossil fuels than to renewable energy.
This year’s report raises a fundamental question: what is holding the world back from using the COVID crisis as an opportunity for transformation? Dr. Stephan Singer, Senior Advisor at CAN International says, “Unfortunately the harsh lesson from the pandemic is that most governments did not use the unique opportunity to further curtail carbon pollution and break the resistance of the fossil fuel incumbents. What counts for them is corporate profit – neither the climate nor people’s health.”
REN21’s 2021 report shows that governments need to give a much harder push to renewables in all sectors. The window of opportunity is closing unless efforts are significantly ramped up, and it will not be easy to do. “Governments must not only support renewables but also rapidly decommission fossil fuel capacity. A good way to accelerate development is to make the uptake of renewable energy a key performance indicator for every economic activity, every budget and every single public purchase. Thus, every ministry should have short- and long-term targets and plans to shift to renewable energy coupled with clear end-dates for fossil fuels,” concludes Adib.
REN21 is a think tank and a multistakeholder governance group which is focused on renewable energy policy.
REN21 was created in 2004 as an outcome of the Bonn2004 International Conference on Renewable Energy.
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