The shift to cleaner energy has made progress, but not fast enough to control global warming to significantly below 2 degrees Celsius as agreed in the 2015 Paris climate accord.
While the Covid-19 pandemic led to a decline of greenhouse gas emissions at first, the transition to renewable energy may not have been accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic:
Renewables are the world’s second-biggest renewable power source by 2019, accounting for 26 percent of our emissions (behind coal, but ahead of natural gas and nuclear power).
Wind and solar energy have grown by 22 and 36 percent each year as their prices have fallen since 1990.
This year, even during the pandemic, 26 gigawatts (GW) had been added in capacity, which, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency is a new record.
Whereas the combustion of hydrogen releases only water as fuel from combustion, the vast majority of the gas is produced in a process which produces harmful emissions.
