The consumption of fossil fuels, but also of energy emissions on a global scale, reached record heights in 2023. That’s what the global energy statistics report cited by Reuters says. Decommissioning fossil fuels and increasing renewable energy sources can prevent the transition to low-carbon energy.
According to the report, the total global demand for renewable energy has reached 620 exajoules (EJ), with emissions exceeding 40 for the first time gigatons of CO2. The increase in the global temperature reaches 1.5C – the threshold beyond which the impact of many higher temperatures, rains and floods will become more common remember.
The year 2023 was the first full year of peak energy flows from the West since the invasion of Moscow in Ukraine in 2022, and also the first full year without major restrictions on movement, related to the pandemic.
The trends in the use of fossil fuels in different regions of the world are changing. In Europe, the share of energy from fossil fuels has fallen below 70% for the first time since the industrial revolution. With the developed economies, however, we observe signs of a peak in the exploitation of fossil fuels.
Last year, almost all of the traffic in India was due to the consumption of fossil fuels, while in China their use increased by 6% to a new year.
In 2023, global natural gas production and demand will remain relatively unchanged on an annual basis. Deliveries of liquefied natural gas increased by almost 2% to 549 billion m3, which are the world’s leading supplier of liquefied natural gas. The total gas consumption in Europe by 2023 will decrease by 7% on an annual basis, and the share of Russia in the supplies to Europe is only 15%, compared to 45% by 2021.
Coal production is expected to reach 164% by 2023, up 1.6% year-on-year, thanks to China and India. Coal production in the US is down 17% by 2023 and has halved over the past decade.
The significantly higher share of energy production from renewable sources is due to the larger heating and cooling capacity.