Jakarta – In its report, the International Energy Agency (IEA) revealed that carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions related to global energy consumption reached a record high in 2023. This increase is partly due to the use of fossil fuels in countries where catastrophic droughts have hampered hydropower production.
Global emissions from the energy sector increased by 410 million tons in 2023, reaching 37.4 billion tons, a 1.1 per cent increase over the previous year’s 490 million tons.
The expansion of green technologies such as wind and solar power helped limit growth in emissions in the previous year. Still, China’s economic reopening and increased fossil fuel use in countries with low hydropower production led to the increase.
In its report, the IEA highlighted the need for significant reductions in CO2 emissions, mainly from fossil fuel combustion, to limit global temperature rise in line with Paris Agreement targets.
IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said, “undergone a series of stress tests in the last five years – and it has demonstrated its resilience … (from) a pandemic, an energy crisis to geopolitical instability.”
“All had the potential to derail efforts to build cleaner and more secure energy systems,” he added.
According to the IEA, measures to replace hydropower hampered by extreme drought accounted for about 40 per cent of the global emissions increase or about 170 million tons of CO2. In the United States, energy-related emissions fell by 4.1 per cent, with most of the reduction coming from the power sector. Meanwhile, in the European Union, energy emissions fell by nearly 9 per cent in the past year due to a surge in renewable power generation.
In China, emissions from the energy sector increased by 5.2 per cent as the economy recovered from Covid-19 restrictions. However, China also accounted for about 60 per cent of global solar, wind and electric vehicle additions in the same year.
Global electric vehicles accounted for one in five new car sales in 2023, reaching 14 million units, up 35 per cent compared to the previous year. (Hartatik)
