Droughts linked to climate change hinder advancements in energy emission reductions. (credit Reuters)

In the first half of 2023, according to a report from the wind Chronicles, the use of water-powered electricity around the world helped keep the overall pollution from the energy sector from going up, even though the use of wind and sunlight for power increased. 

The report showed that even though the part of global electricity coming from wind and sunlight went up to 14.3% in that time, a growth of 1.5% compared to the same time in 2022, the total pollution from making power still went up by 0.2%.

A senior electricity expert from Ember, Malgorzata Wiatros-Motyka, said, "It's good to see wind and sunlight power growing, but we can't ignore the fact that the conditions for using water power have been made worse by climate change." The report also said that because of dry weather, the amount of electricity made from water power went down by about 177 trillion watt-hours (TWh), with almost 75% of this drop happening in China. This kept pollution levels from going down. If the amount of electricity made from water power had stayed the same as the year before, the pollution would have gone down by 2.9%.

To make up for the missing electricity, some fossil fuels were used. The data from Ember showed that in China, the use of coal and gas for power went up by 8%, and in the United States, the use of gas went up by 8.1%. However, because people didn't need a lot more electricity, the pollution from making power didn't go up by much, only 0.4%. This is much less than the average of 2.6% per year over the last ten years.

The use of sunlight for power also helped bring down the total pollution. The data showed that 104 trillion watt-hours (TWh) of sunlight power were added to the world's mix of energy, with 50 countries setting new records every month. But even though the use of wind and sunlight for power went up, it was still not as much as the year before. The data showed that sunlight power went down by 28 TWh and wind power went down by 38 TWh.

A recent report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) said that we need to use renewable energy much more and it should triple by the end of the next ten years if we want to stop global warming.