40 percent of world power clean but emissions grow

More than 40 percent of world electricity was generated without burning fossil fuels in 2024, according to A new report by Think-Tank EmberS

But the carbon dioxide emissions that warm the planet have risen to all time, the report said, pushing the overall demand for energy.

This meant an increase in the use of fossil combustion power plants.

Solar energy continues to be the fastest growing source of energy, with the amount of electricity generating doubling over the last three years.

“Solar energy has become the engine of the global energy transition,” says Phil McDonald, Managing Director of Ember.

“Against the background of noise, it is essential to focus on the real signal. The hot time triggered the increase in the generation of fossils in 2024, but it is unlikely to see such a jump in 2025”

In a separate report, the European Climate Service Copernicus said that March 2025 was the second most hot in the record, extending a spell at record or near record temperatures.

Ember is a global energy cerebral trust that has been forecast for several years that the emissions of the climate warming gas carbon dioxide were about to start falling.

But this has not yet happened because of the growing global demand for electricity.

Cheap and relatively easy to install, for the twentieth year in a row, solar energy is the fastest growing source of electricity. According to Ember, the amount generated by solar panels has doubled every three years since 2012.

China continues to dominate the growth of solar energy with more than half of the increase there. India's solar capacity doubled between 2023 and 2024.

Although it is growing rapidly, solar energy remains a relatively small part of the global energy mix that contributes just under 7% of world delivery – it is the same as the power supply of the whole country of India.

The wind contributes just over 8%, with hydropower contributes by 14%, making it the largest source of clean energy. Both hydroelectric and nuclear energy (9%) grow much slower than wind and solar energy.

The report states that clean energy sources have contributed more than 40% of global electricity production for the first time in the 40s. At that time, the demand was much smaller, and the hydroelectric power plants contributed a significant share.

The big picture is that the increase in global demand for electricity continues to surpass the growth of renewable energy.

This means that although the percentage generated by clean energy has increased to 40.9%, the amount of greenhouse gas emitted has not yet begun to fall.

According to the Ember Global report, demand for electricity increased by 4% in 2024.

This is partly due to the increased use of air conditioning in what was especially hot year. This meant that the production of fossil fuels, mainly coal (34%) and gas (22%), increased by 1.4%and global gas emissions for climate warming increased to all times of 14.6 billion tonnes.

In the last five years, rapidly developing Asian economies, in particular India and China, have continued to expand the use of fossil fuels to meet the rapidly growing demand for electricity.