Think of China and energy today, and you probably think of coal. But as the chief of the International Energy Agency told me recently, that’s changing. In years to come, wind turbines and vast solar arrays could become the first things that spring to mind.
Last year, for the first time, renewable energy accounted for more than half of new power generation worldwide, as we report today. China is expected to build more than twice that global amount in the next five years, driven by its thirst for more electricity capacity, public anxiety over air pollution and the need to fulfil its climate change pledges.
The world is changing, and Europe is no longer the big driver of green energy growth that it once was. “In the next five years, the People’s Republic of China and India alone will account for almost half of global renewable capacity additions,” says the IEA in a new report.
But even with all this growth, renewables are only forecast to provide just over a quarter of the world’s electricity by 2021. There’s still a long way to go.
Adam Vaughan
Environment editor, The Guardian
