Ashley Dawson at the Los Angeles Review of Books:
ENERGY-RELATED CARBON EMISSIONS hit an all-time high in 2024, contributing to record atmospheric concentrations of CO2. As a result, last year was the warmest year on record, the first that was more than 1.5°C above preindustrial levels. But how is this possible given the record levels of global investment in and deployment of renewables, which reached an all-time high with 536 gigawatts of renewable capacity added in 2023?
The answer is that fossil fuels are not being replaced by renewables, as the term energy transition suggests. Instead, they are being added to the total energy supply. What we are witnessing, in other words, is energy addition rather than transition. Or, to put it another way, we are living through a green transition; it’s just that it’s not the one that climate activists, scientists, or, indeed, anyone concerned about life on this planet actually wants. This green transition is likely to blow us through 2.0°C of global warming by the end of the 2030s, with all the environmental and social disruption that this implies.
To win a decline in global emissions, we must shut down the ongoing fossil-fuel production that is driving energy addition.
More here.
Enjoying the content on 3QD? Help keep us going by donating now.