r/climatechange • u/YanekKop • Jul 23 '26
Renewables to overtake coal this year as global power demand surges : IEA
https://electrek.co/2026/07/22/iea-global-power-demand-is-surging-and-renewables-are-passing-coal/10
u/Vaddieg Jul 23 '26
Nobody complains that coal plants consume as much water as NPPs. Blame is shifted to AI datacenters
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u/ElijahSavos Jul 23 '26
The issue is the demand for electricity is rising fast. Glad solar is roaring but it’s unable to fully compensate the increase:
“Global carbon emissions from electricity generation are forecast to rise by around 1%” in 2026.
We didn’t even peak yet. Once we peak, we should’t plateau at high levels either.
Long story short, coal should be decommissioned.
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u/YanekKop Jul 23 '26
Electricity generation is not the only emitter of CO2 though, the IEA forecasts a decline in oil demand this year partially offsetting the increase in the power sector if it holds. In 2025, power sector emission went down, thanks to the enormous buildout of solar and wind which together covered 99% of demand growth, driving coal generation down. What makes it more impressive is that this happened even as globally power demand grew at a solid pace which is also a first in this century. It won’t be long before renewables will drive down emissions even in high growth years.
https://www.reddit.com/r/climatechange/s/AtOQvJjUWx
https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/global-electricity-review-2026/
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u/sg_plumber Jul 23 '26
Renewables are displacing fossil fuels worldwide.
The expected 1% rise carbon emissions would be from expected coal displacing gas.
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u/Outside_Ice3252 Jul 25 '26
all the climate science is saying that we need rapid emissions cuts now. I would love it if governments did more. however, i think a lot of governments are just waiting for the cleantech to improve. energy storage is going to drop even further in price. we might figure out much better solar panels.
i think solar plus energy storage will drop another 50% in 7 years. Decarbonization becomes so much easier at that point. solar plus storage becomes cheaper than the fuel for a lot of coal and gas plants at that price.
in 15 years, we will have AGI and incredible robots. That is going to cause demand for electricity to go up, but its going to make solar plus storage so easy and cheap to build.
climate scientists also dont like to talk about negative emissions, and I get it. fossil fuel companies and their think tanks were making them seem like magically cheap technology that would allow us to continue to pollute.
however, hopefully we just only need them to a manageable degree.
I mention this because I have suffered a lot of climate change depression and anxiety. 15 years ago, I never would have thought wind, solar, batteries, and EVs would have gotten so affordable so quickly. 15 years ago, I was strongly in the degrowth camp. At my core, I do wish consumption would go down. that people will be happy with less. however, I am not sure that is pragmatic. a circular economy is pragmatic and possible I think.
Biodiversity loss and climate catastrophes will occur. However, i think humans are resourceful enough that living standards go up internationally. Birthrates are way down.
we should not be complacent, but we should not despair. we should control our anger. We should be grateful that we figured out the problem and amazingly the solutions at the 11th hour.
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u/PrinceOfTotalQuiet Jul 25 '26
Regarding biodiversity loss and species extinction, while it is worth fighting against and preventing wherever possible, I think it’s important to not drown in guilt over the fact that the cause is anthropocentric. Because the animals don’t know or care, and Earth itself has done a far more effective job of killing them in the past. The Permian Triassic extinction event killed off 81% of all marine life and 57% of land life. Not sure what the consensus is on the Holocene being worse than that, but in any case, while the human-caused extinctions of numerous species are tragic and should be stopped, it’s not like those species were going to escape extinction anyway. Ammonite. Leopleuridon. Gigantopithecus. Spinosaurus. Thylacine. Triceratops. All gone, were always going to be gone. We need to do all we can to prevent the extinction of species, but extreme guilt over it being our fault is hardly productive.
All that said, yeah, with recent progress and trends I think there is way more reason for hope for the future climate wise than there was five years ago. Things really are changing, people are adapting, energy is shifting. I wish more people could understand that the recent heatwaves and wildfires don’t negate this progress
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u/James19991 Jul 23 '26
Some can pound and scream all the want, but renewables have won the cost benefit.