Two years after agreeing to limit global warming to well below 2°C, and to pursue efforts to even aim for a 1.5°C limit, we still see a huge ambition gap1 in the countries‘ greenhouse gas reduction targets and their progress regarding a sufficient implementation of the Paris agreement in national legislation.
Nonetheless, there are encouraging signs that a global energy transition is underway. Numbers show that, in 2014, 2015 and 2016, global energy-related carbon dioxide emissions did not grow further – the first time since industrial revolution in years without a big economic crisis. Also, according to the recent UNEP “Emission Gap Report” all global greenhouse gas emissions declined in 2016 for the first time since the early 1980s.2 However, preliminary data published by the Global Carbon Project indicates that the emission in 2017 increased again by 2%.3
The decarbonisation of energy systems plays a key role in limiting emissions and in reducing them in the future. In addition, it is an encouraging sign for ongoing decarbonisation that global energyrelated emissions have not grown, while primary energy demand has grown by an annual average of around 1.8% since 2011.