Clean energy sources provided a record 47 percent of European electricity last year, powering ahead of fossil fuels.A new report from Ember, a London-based think tank, found that solar power achieved record growth to give Europe 11 percent of its electricity and overtook coal for the first time.
Solar and wind power together surpassed gas, which has declined for the past five years.
These are important milestones towards achieving a European goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 55 percent relative to 1990 levels by 2030.
Europe’s power sector emissions have now fallen to less than half their 2007 levels, Ember found.
This has happened because politicians of all stripes backed renewables, the report said.
“Many national and European elections bred concerns that the transition to clean energy would lose support. On the contrary, progress continued at pace,” said the report.
Some of that shared political impetus is economic.
Since 2019, solar and wind power have saved Europeans 59 billion euros ($61bn) in fossil fuel imports, Ember found, most of it gas. Advertisement
During those five years, fossil fuels’ share of the power sector fell to 29 percent, while renewables grew.
‘US risks being left behind in the clean industrial revolution’
Europe has few resources of oil and gas and currently spends about half a trillion dollars a year importing fossil fuels. Its main hope for energy autonomy is in developing renewables.
In contrast, the United States is the world’s largest oil producer and export …
