Over the past two years, the rate in which renewable energy technologies are being adopted globally has increased significantly. This is excellent news for everyone around the world as these figures are helping to work towards keeping global warming under the 1.5 ̊C limit, which is has been set in comparison to pre-industrial levels.
This is incredibly important, if we go over our global target of a 1.5 ̊C increase limit, there will be increases to many risk factors, including health problems, natural disasters, crop failure, food insecurity, water insecurity, livelihoods being lost, economic recession, homes being damaged, changing landscapes, ecosystem damage, animal, plant and human migration, and increasing temperatures.
There have been previous warnings, by both scientists and researchers, that there will be a 66% chance we will go over this limit if we do not make sustainable and cleaner changes.
The rate in which renewable energy technologies
are being adopted has increased significantly.
IEA Report
According to a report carried out by the International Energy Agency, or the IEA, this increase in the adoption of renewable energy technologies has meant that there is a higher chance of us avoiding reaching and going over this limit. Alongside the increased use of renewable energy technologies is the increased use of electric vehicles, or EVs, the IEA is showing that the world is taking a much more positive step in the right direction, although much more needs to be done.
Fatih Birol, the Executive Director of the International Energy Agency, has released a statement which claims that the world can continue to make these positive changes and stay under the 1.5 ̊C target. He states:
“Keeping alive the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 ̊C
requires the world to come together quickly… The good news
is we know what we need to do – and how to do it.”
IEA’s report, titled Net Zero Roadmap: A Global Pathway to Keep the 1.5 °C Goal in Reach, claims that in order for the world to be below the 1.5 ̊C we must first go over it. The report states that if all countries around the world apply the cuts within their own emissions through policies and strategies written within the roadmap, then we will be able to reach net zero by 2050.
The IEA claims that in order for the world to be below the 1.5 ̊C we must first go over it.
However, it does mean that we need to go over 1.5 ̊C first of all in order for the world to successfully change its global energy system to a more sustainable model, which will include the use of renewable energy sources. The IEA has promised that this rise in temperature, to above the limit, would only be temporary, and by the end of the century the temperature rise will have dropped to a temperature that is below the global warming threshold.
New Technology
In the same report that was carried out in 2021, the IEA stated that roughly half of the emissions that needed to be cut, would be done through technologies that hadn’t yet become available. In the most recent report, this figure has dropped, as currently 35% of the emissions that need to be cut would be done through unavailable technologies.
This is due to the increase in new renewable energy technologies, carbon capture and storage, bio-energy production, and the use of green hydrogen. Each of these technologies are designed to cut emissions, increase the use of clean energy, and to make the world more sustainable, which overall should help to prevent further temperature increases.
Although, there is still a long way to go in order to reduce emissions especially due to the continued use of greenhouse gas emitting fossil fuels, the move towards cleaner and more renewable energy technologies has allowed the IEA to predict that the demand for fossil fuels will peak before we reach 2030. As well as the use of these new renewable energy technologies will take over.
Birol states that:
