Half the World’s Countries Are Transitioning Away From Fossil Fuel Energy Emissions: Report

A solar farm, the RWE Weisweiler coal-fired power plant, and wind turbines in North Rhine-Westphalia, Eschweiler, Germany on March 21, 2024. Oliver Berg / picture alliance via Getty Images

According to a new analysis from think tank Ember, evidence is growing that the planet is nearing a global peak in fossil fuel emissions from the power sector.

Half the economies in the world are making the transition away from fossil fuel use, and are five or more years past a peak in fossil power generation.

“With half the world now in a period of declining fossil fuels in the power sector – and China close to joining them – the world will soon enter a new era of falling fossil generation,” said Dave Jones, author of the analysis and director of Ember’s Global Insights Programme, as Business Green reported. “But we’re not quite there yet.”

According to Ember’s Global Electricity Review, a surge in clean electricity — led by wind and solar — has helped slow fossil power sector growth by nearly two-thirds in the past decade.

Coal is quickly becoming obsolete in the world’s richest countries. The United Kingdom, where the Industrial Revolution began, shut down its last coal-fired power plant in 2024.

A third of the richest nations in the world are now free of coal as a power source, Jones said in a press release from Ember. Across Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, coal consumption has been cut in half since use of the dirty fuel peaked in 2008.

“Almost all OECD countries are making good progress on phasing out coal power, replacing it predominantly with solar and wind. Three-quarters of OECD countries plan to be coal-free by 2030,” Jones said.

This year set another record for renewables, but it was coupled with a steep rise in energy demand. This resulted in what will likely be yet another record year for oil, gas and coal consumption. However, the most recent renewable electricity trends indicate that the world is approaching a turning point where fossil demand in the power sector begins to fall.

“The era of fossil growth is over, but current policies do not yet set the world on course for a rapid decline in fossil fuels. Indeed, under current policies, the International Energy Agency (IEA) forecasts fossil fuel demand in the power sector in 2030 to be just 2% below 2023 levels,” Jones added. “Whilst there was no timeline or ambition with which to ‘transition away from fossil fuels’, a 2% fall by 2030 is a world away from the 43% reductions in greenhouse gas emissions needed by 2030 to align with a 1.5C pathway.”

According to Jones, governments have taken little action to upgrade their renewables targets since an agreement was reached to triple renewable energy capacity worldwide by the end of the decade. In the 12 months leading up to October of this year, only eight nations had updated their renewables goals to 2030.

“The world is embracing renewables. Many countries are already showing successful models for rapid renewables deployment, supported by enhanced grids, locally-tailored flexibility solutions such as battery storage, and timely policy interventions. The progress we are seeing so far should stop fossil fuels rising further,” Jones explained. “However, it does not – at least yet – mean a transition away from fossil fuels. A great focus will be needed on efficiency, unlocking barriers to renewables deployment, investing in clean flexibility and planning our move away from a fossil fuel economy.”

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