The International Energy Agency (IEA) reports today that despite the impressive increase in renewable energy – energy produced by wind is up 42% and solar 19% from 2011 to 2012 alone – carbon emissions have not abated worldwide. As relayed on Marketplace Morning Report today, rapidly industrializing economies, as well as Europe which has resorted to importing American coal, have produced more carbon dioxide per unit of manufacturing.
From the IEA’s report:
To illustrate this inertia, the report, Tracking Clean Energy Progress, introduces the Energy Sector Carbon Intensity Index (ESCII), which shows how much carbon dioxide is emitted, on average, to provide a given unit of energy. The ESCII stood at 2.39 tonnes of CO2 per tonne of oil equivalent (tCO2/toe) in 1990, and had barely moved by 2010, holding at 2.37 tCO2/toe.
The news that carbon emissions have not decreased is not new per se. Marketplace suggests that the natural gas revolution has yet to catch on elsewhere. While fracking has made natural gas accessible, it is primarily a US based phenomenon. The lack of increase in carbon intensity is slightly distressing given the advances in renewable energy. All of the “clean energy” that has come on the global market since 1990 has only resulted in a miniscule drop (0.02 tCO2/toe).
As countries look to develop in “western ways”, an international agreement that makes sense (unlike Kyoto), is highly improbable. What is more likely is those countries leapfrogging the carbon rich mistakes of the industrialized world’s past 200 years. One can hope at least.
(logo from IEA website)