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Explainer
Interactive: Fossil fuels vs renewables - where the world's top 20 emitters stand
As countries around the world pledge to shift their industries away from coal, here's where the top 20 CO2 emitting countries stand when it comes to electricity production and why it matters.
Published 12 November 2021 6:02am
Updated 23 February 2022 6:02am
Source: SBS News
The 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference has put climate action on the agenda in recent weeks, with energy transition away from coal drawing a pledge from a large cohort of countries, excluding Australia.
Coal is the most polluting fossil fuel, and coal-fuelled power generation is the single biggest cause of global temperature increases. Weaning the world off coal is seen as vital to achieving globally agreed climate targets.
Signatories of the COP26 agreement have recognised the need to transition away from "unabated" coal power generation - meaning the use of coal power that is not mitigated with technologies to reduce carbon dioxide emissions - and to urgently scale up to clean power.
"The end of coal is in sight. The world is moving in the right direction, standing ready to seal coal’s fate and embrace the environmental and economic benefits of building a future that is powered by clean energy," The UK's business and energy secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said last week.
Australia, along with other coal-dependent economies including China, India and the United States won't be signing the pledge.
So, what does this transition look like and which countries are leading the way?
From fossil fuels to renewables
The clean energy transition involves shifting energy production away from sources that release greenhouse gases, such as fossil fuels, to those that release less. Low-carbon sources include nuclear power and renewables, such as hydropower, wind and solar.
Professor Jacek Jasieniak, Associate Dean of Engineering at Monash University, said this is marked by transitioning supply chains and costs.
"Renewables are now the lowest-cost energy supplies in the world - that's wind and photovoltaics," he told SBS News, referring to energy that uses solar radiation to produce electricity.
Mark Howden, director of the Australian National University’s Institute for Climate, Energy and Disaster Solutions, said that globally, renewables are rolling out more quickly and cheaply than ever before.
"That trend is likely to continue, and that's simply because renewables are the cheapest form of energy that has ever existed in human history. And so, the logic of not investing in those and building on that is not very strong."
Professor Jasieniak agreed.
"It's now no longer whether they're cheaper or not, it's now how best can we deploy these at the scale that we need them to be at," he said.
It’s important to note that electricity is only one of three components that make up total energy consumption, along with transport and heating.
Decarbonising it, or making the transition to low-carbon sources such as nuclear and renewables, is one step towards a low-carbon energy system.
Check out the interactive graphic below to see how each country’s use of fossil fuels, renewables and more has changed over time.
China, the United States and India are ranked the top three CO2 emitters, with Australia falling in 15th place, according to the most recently available data from Our World in Data.
Globally, the data shows coal, followed by gas, is the largest source of electricity production. Of the low-carbon sources, hydropower and nuclear make up the largest contribution, although wind and solar are growing quickly.
In 2019, 36.7 per cent of global electricity was low-carbon (26.3 and 10.4 per cent from renewables and nuclear energy respectively), while the remaining 63.3 per cent came from fossil fuels, mostly coal and gas.
But this percentage of low-carbon sources is higher in some countries.
Where do the top emitters stand?
Professor Howden said renewables are being rolled out at huge rates in the United States. "And, right across Europe, we see a very fast roll-out of renewables, and similarly in China and various other countries," he said.
The graphic shows China's total electricity production has increased from 1,319.1 TWh (terawatt-hour) in 2000 to 7,623.7 TWh in 2020, including 5,044.96 TWh in fossil fuels, 2,212.54 TWh in renewables and 366.2 TWh in nuclear energy. In that time, its share of fossil fuels has dropped from 81.7 to 66.17 per cent while renewables have increased from 16.92 to 29.02 per cent.
Ranked in second place, the United States' total electricity production rose from 3,802.11 TWh in 2000 to 4,049.85 TWh in 2020. Its share of fossil fuels dropped from 70.94 to 60.05 per cent in that time, while renewables increased from 9.23 to 20.04 per cent and nuclear remained steady at about 19 per cent.
Ranked in 17th place, the United Kingdom, which produced a total of 305.48 TWh in 2020, has seen a marked decline in the share of coal in its electricity production.
In the late 1980s, coal made up more than 60 per cent of the UK’s electricity production, according to Our World In Data. The graphic shows this fell to 32.04 per cent by 2000 and 1.74 per cent by 2020, with its total fossil fuel share dropping from 74.62 to 40.74 per cent.
Meanwhile, its share of renewables increased from 2.66 to 42.3 per cent during that time. Its nuclear energy use has dropped from 22.72 to 16.96 per cent.
Other notable countries though include Canada - ranked 11th. Its share of renewables started at 61.77 per cent in 2000, compared to 26.48 per cent fossil fuels, and rose to 68.62 per cent by 2020. Its share of fossil fuels dropped to 16.64 per cent while nuclear rose slightly to 14.84 per cent.
Meanwhile, in Brazil - ranked 13th - renewables accounted for 84.23 per cent in 2020, down from 90.26 per cent in 2000.
What about Australia?
The graphs show Australia ranked in 15th place and with a total electricity production of 251.35 TWh in 2020, including 188.84 TWh in fossil fuels, 62.5 TWh in renewables and 0 nuclear energy.
It shows Australia's share of electricity production has seen fossil fuels decline from 91.21 to 75.13 per cent between 2000 and 2020, with coal dropping from 82.50 to 53.75 per cent.
Meanwhile, renewables have risen from 8.79 to 24.87 per cent, including an increase in solar (0.02 to 7.42 per cent) and wind (0.03 to 9.76 per cent) and a drop in hydro (8.17 to 6.41 per cent).
Professor Howden said ranking Australia's position is difficult due to each country having different circumstances.
"It depends on where you look. In some respects, Australia is doing well, with rooftop solar, for example. The question is, how much better could we do if we had well-integrated and comprehensive policies which were stable?" he said.
"But I would say, regardless of where we sit, we could actually be sitting higher up the ranking."
Professor Jasieniak stressed the electricity space is just one sector to consider.
"For us, it's about looking at not only the electricity space - which is moving away from conventional fossil fuels - [but] at the broader sectors. I think it's important to consider things like transport decarbonisation and looking at the industry sector, such as steel, concrete and other things which are high energy users that need to be considered in the same light."
The Morrison government formally committed Australia to a net zero by 2050 target days ahead of COP26. It has also pledged to reduce emissions by 26 to 28 per cent from 2005 levels by 2030 and says it's on target to surpass that.
But the net zero pledge came well after those made by many of its allies and global partners and has not been enshrined in legislation.
Speaking to SBS News in Glasgow, Energy Minister Angus Taylor defended the Australian government's decision not to sign up for the coal pact.
"We have a whole-of-economy target, we don’t set sector specific or gas specific targets. Our focus is on bringing down the cost of low emissions technologies, not wiping out industries."
Interactive by Ken Macleod. Lead artwork by Jono Delbridge. Additional reporting by Emma Brancatisano.
