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from the did-you-check-to-turn-the-lights-off dept.
Germany's economy nowadays emits as much carbon dioxide as it did in the 1950s, when it was 10 times smaller.
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), carbon dioxide emissions trends for 2019 suggest clean energy transitions are underway. Global power sector emissions declined by some 170 Mt, or 1.2%, with the biggest falls taking place in the advanced economies of the European Union, Japan and the United States. There, CO2 emissions are now at levels not seen since the late 1980s, when electricity demand was one-third lower.
In these advanced economies, the average CO2 emissions intensity of electricity generation declined by nearly 6.5% in 2019. This is a rate three times faster than the average over the past decade.
This decline is driven by a switch from coal to natural gas, a rise in nuclear power and weaker electricity demand, combined with the seemingly unstoppable growth in renewables. These now constitute over 40% of the energy mix in Germany (wind power +11%) and the United Kingdom, where rapid expansion in offshore wind power generation is happening.
The bummer lies with the rest of the world.
There emissions continue to expand with close to 400 Mt last year. About 80% of that increase is happening in Asia. Coal demand here continues to expand, accounting for over 50% of energy use.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Grishnakh on Thursday February 13 2020, @04:26AM (2 children)
AFAICT, he's somewhat incompetent at actually running things (his own business forays have never done that well), but is pretty clever at "reading the crowd" and figured out what would "sell" to the voting public. Then, he was assisted greatly by the Democratic Party shooting itself in the foot with a shotgun. This isn't completely unprecedented; populist politicians have been around for a very long time, which is why we have the term "populist" for this context. Andrew Jackson comes to mind as a prior President who resembled Trump in many ways.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Thursday February 13 2020, @02:16PM (1 child)
Nearly all politicians are incompetent at running things.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Grishnakh on Friday February 14 2020, @01:19AM
I'm not so sure about that. I really don't like some of the things China does (concentration camps, artificial military islands, etc.), but I have to admit their political leadership seems to actually know what it's doing. The amount that country has improved economically over the past 30 years is just amazing.