74% of US Coal Plants Threatened by Renewables, But Emissions Continue To Rise

The International Energy Agency (IEA) released a report this week saying that in 2018, 'global energy-related CO2 emissions rose by 1.7 percent to 33 Gigatonnes.' That's the most growth in emissions that the world has seen since 2013. From a report: Coal use contributed to a third of the total increase, mostly from new coal-fired power plants in China and India. This is worrisome because new coal plants have a lifespan of roughly 50 years. But the consequences of climate change are already upon us, and coal's hefty emissions profile compared to other energy sources means that, globally, carbon mitigation is going to be a lot more difficult to tackle than it may look from here in the US.

Even in the US, carbon emissions grew by 3.1 percent in 2018, according to the IEA. (This closely tracks estimates by the Rhodium Group, which released a preliminary report in January saying that US carbon emissions increased by 3.4 percent in 2018.) 'By country, China, the United States, and India together accounted for nearly 70 percent of the rise in energy demand,' Reuters wrote.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.