Renewable energy's record year helps uncouple growth of global economy and CO2 emissions

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-06/tca-rer061515.php

[font face=Serif]Public Release: 17-Jun-2015
[font size=5]Renewable energy's record year helps uncouple growth of global economy and CO2 emissions[/font]
[font size=4]Record installations for wind and solar PV in 2014; renewable energy targets created in 20 more countries, new total: 164[/font]

REN21

[font size=3]Renewable energy targets and other support policies now in place in 164 countries powered the growth of solar, wind and other green technologies to record-breaking energy generation capacity in 2014.

…

With 135 gigawatts added, total installed renewable energy power capacity worldwide, including large hydroelectric plants, stood at 1712 gigawatts, up 8.5% from the year before and double the 800 gigawatts of capacity reported in the first REN21 report in 2005.

In 2014, renewables made up an estimated 59% of net additions to global power capacity and represented far higher shares of capacity added in several countries around the world. By year's end, renewables comprised an estimated 27.7% of the world's power generating capacity. This was enough to supply an estimated 22.8% of global electricity demand.

The quantity of electricity available from renewables worldwide is now greater than that produced by all coal-burning plants in the USA (in 2013 coal supplied ~38% of US electricity, down from ~50% in the early 2000s).

…[/font][/font]

[bananas]

1. This is extremely important: the economy has decoupled from emissions.

All of which helped the world achieve a sustainable development milestone: In 2014, for the first time in four decades, the world economy grew without a parallel rise in carbon dioxide emissions. Despite the world's annual 1.5% increase in energy consumption in recent years and 3% Gross Domestic Product growth last year, CO2 emissions were unchanged from 2013 levels: 32.3 billion metric tons.

[OKIsItJustMe]

2. Yes this seems to violate a core belief of many on E&E

i.e. that a growing economy is impossible without growing carbon emissions.

[The2ndWheel]

3. Well for me, I think that we can grow on pretty much anything if we put our minds to it

Which is at least just as worrisome as anything carbon related. The seemingly unlimited human imagination coupled with potentially limitless energy? I can picture a few ways we can screw things up a little more with that, since the problem isn't simply just carbon.

But then I don't think anything we do will solve the most basic problem. That being, the planet and physical reality being finite. It either is or it isn't, and what kind of energy we use cannot change that. We can't have everything. We can't have a planet molded for human beings, and at the same time the various other forms of life that exist. We can have a few squirrels, some small birds, and whatever we put in a zoo, but that's probably about it. If we do find a limitless source of energy, I have little doubt that the planet will be further molded into the images we have inside our heads.

We're really too big to fail at this point. Now, I'm pretty sure that we can't stop that process, and I don't even know if we should if we could. If a lion could build a conveyor belt with gazelle after gazelle after gazelle on it, it probably would.

[NickB79]

4. And yet, the numbers from Mauna Loa don't lie

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/co2-levels-in-atmosphere-rising-at-dramatically-faster-rate-un-report-warns/2014/09/08/3e2277d2-378d-11e4-bdfb-de4104544a37_story.html

Levels of heat-trapping carbon dioxide in the atmosphere rose at a record-shattering pace last year, a new report shows, a surge that surprised scientists and spurred fears of an accelerated warming of the planet in decades to come.

Concentrations of nearly all the major greenhouse gases reached historic highs in 2013, reflecting ever-rising emissions from automobiles and smokestacks but also, scientists believe, a diminishing ability of the world’s oceans and plant life to soak up the excess carbon put into the atmosphere by humans, according to data released early Tuesday by the United Nations’ meteorological advisory body.

As for this claim:

CO2 emissions were unchanged from 2013 levels: 32.3 billion metric tons.

I'd point to this: https://carboncounter.wordpress.com/2015/03/04/china-has-already-exceeded-its-2015-cap-on-coal-production/

However, buried in a recently published statistical communique from China is the following important note,

data have been revised based on the results of the Third National Economic Census. The output of coal in 2013 has been revised from 3.68 billion tons to 3.97 billion tons.

In other words, coal production in 2013 was revised upwards by 7.9%, and by 0.29 billion tonnes. This revision is the equivalent of 1/3 of the annual coal production of America.

And this raises another problem. There is a long history of official manipulation of statistics in China. Stats are juked so that targets can be met and so that officials can get promoted. This is well understood.

Garbage in, garbage out. And in the meantime, we're past 400 ppm with no indications of slowing down anytime soon.

[hatrack]

5. Thank you for saving me the effort!

When atmospheric readings begin to drop, then we'll know that we've "decoupled the growth of the global economy from CO2 emissions."