Fossil Fuel Consumption and Emissions Hit Record Highs in 2023 Despite Renewable Energy Growth
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Roshan Amiri
- . June 20, 2024
- . Update: June 20, 2024 8:35 pm
However, the global new Renewable capacity addition has only seen an uptick while the latest year saw the highest Fossil fuel consumption and energy emissions in 2023 as per the Statistical Review of World Energy report. The interactive report emphasizes increasing global consumption of fossil fuels even as their market Inch Share of the global energy mix contracted slightly. Such an increase in demand for fossils could delay efforts aimed at reducing the use of fossil energies, which would lead to deeper climate change consequences such as increase in temperature, drought, and flood. It is appealing for policymakers and leaders to wake up and face the reality of the challenges that lie in the transition in the energy sector.
Thus, while demand for fossil fuels continues to grow across the globe, so do emissions related to them.
Shifting Regional Trends
Some of the changes in the trend of fossil fuel consumption patterns was evident based on the regions as was captured in the report. For example, in Europe, a fossil fuel’s market share dropped under 70% the very first time since the industrial revolution. Thus, in the countries of the developing world, specifically in India, the demand for fossil fuel made up nearly all of the increased demand due to the economic growth and further improvement in the standard of living.
China’s Contradictory Role
Even as China saw a 6% increase in fossil fuel use, the record highs, other areas of the world saw China as contributing more than 50 percent of new additions in renewable energy generation in the last year. This rather paradoxical situation could also be seen as an interesting showcase of the state of energy transition processes in the world’s most populous nation.
Renewable Energy Growth
On a positive note, it revealed higher renewable energy output reaching a level that could be attributed to increased wind and solar capacity. Renewable sources contributed 74 percent of added capacity to the overall generation mix; China remained the world’s largest renewable power capacity installer in 2023.
Oil Consumption and Biofuels
New record on oil demand emerged in 2023, with a global stock rising for the first time and surpassing 100 million bpd, a 2% higher than the figure in the previous year. The petrol use reached 25 million bpd, this is slightly more than it was before the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019. Share of petroleum products also increased by 8% to 2. of 1 million barrels per day; upstream merger and acquisition activities in the upstream sector boosted by the US and Brazil.
Natural Gas and LNG
Gas production and mouth growth was slow in 2023 on the global level. Nevertheless, the global supply of LNG increased by an average of 1.8%, the United States has subsequently displaced Qatar as the largest global supplier.
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Coal Consumption
Based on the index, global coal consumption in the integrated assessment model rose to a peak of 164 Exajoules in 2023, 1 percent more than 2020. Australian demand from China and India also increased, and export revenue rose by 6% from the previous year. In terms of coal demand, India was even out consuming Europe and North America combined.
Emissions and Energy Transition
The reductions in the share of world energy use represented by fossil fuels were small, but emissions intensity inside the fossil fuel category increased slightly, due partly to higher oil and coal use and stable gas use. It has been also mentioned in the report that emissions from energy have, however, been rising 50 percent since 2000.
