Electricity-related CO2 emissions decrease worldwide in 2019

Text by: RFI Follow

For the first time in 30 years, electricity production worldwide has generated less greenhouse gases in 2019 than in previous years. This 2% drop is encouraging for the planet, but remains to be seen if it is a real trend.

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If in France we mainly use nuclear power to make electricity and we therefore emit very few greenhouse gases for this purpose, in the rest of the world, coal dominates by far.

But in 2019, for the first time in thirty years, humanity has burned less. The main culprits are the European Union and the United States. The latter are in the process of moving from coal-fired plants to gas-fired plants to produce their electricity. These plants still pollute, but still a little less.

Record use of coal in China

This drop in Europe and the United States is so significant that it can compensate for an increase in China, where more coal was used in 2019 than ever before. Coal is responsible for a third of energy-related greenhouse gas emissions. Beijing now accounts for half of it and is by far the largest emitter in this area.

In general, this downward trend is good news for the climate. It remains to be seen, however, whether it will continue. On the one hand, due to mild winters and an economic slowdown, it is feared that this decline will only be caused by cyclical factors. On the other hand, renewable energies and nuclear power reached record levels of low-carbon electricity production in 2019.

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• Climate change
• Energies
• Environment

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