IEA, Energy News, ET EnergyWorld

New Delhi: The world is seeing a surge in the use of coal-based energy as renewables, as it is not growing fast enough to meet a strong rebound in global electricity demand this year, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).

The trend is expected to push carbon emissions from the electricity sector to record levels next year, the IEA said in a report. “After falling by around 1% in 2020 due to the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, global demand for electricity is expected to grow by almost 5% in 2021 and 4% in 2022 – driven by the economic recovery world, “It said.

A majority of this increase in electricity demand is expected to come from the Asia-Pacific region, mainly China and India.

“The production of electricity from renewable energies – including hydropower, wind and solar photovoltaic – is set to grow strongly around the world over the next two years – by 8% in 2021 and by more than 6% in 2022 â€, indicates the report.

However, even with this strong growth, renewables will only be able to meet about half of the expected increase in global demand for electricity in those two years, according to the report.

Electricity generation from fossil fuels is expected to cover 45% of additional demand in 2021 and 40% in 2022, with nuclear accounting for the rest.

As a result, the electricity sector’s CO2 emissions – which fell in 2019 and 2020 – are expected to increase by 3.5% in 2021 and 2.5% in 2022, bringing them to an all-time high.