Currently — July 14, 2023: Fossil fuels for electricity may have peaked globally

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The weather, currently.

In what is surely a major milestone in the global fight against climate change, there’s fresh evidence that the rapidly plunging cost of renewable energy may have permanently put a stop to global growth of burning fossil fuels to create electricity.

A new report out Thursday by the Rocky Mountain Institute with support of the Bezos Earth Fund finds that wind and solar have gotten so cheap in almost every corner of the planet that it’s no longer economically viable to keep supplying coal, fossil gas, or oil to power plants. And that might be just the spark that’s needed to accelerate a surge of new renewable energy investment around the world.

The cost of wind and solar have plunged by 60-80% over the past 10 years, and their share of global electricity production will triple to more than one-third in the next 6 years.

All this seems like a dream for those of us who have been working on climate for decades. It’s worth the biggest celebrations, and there’s still a lot of work to do. Fossil fuel use for electricity accounts for only about one-quarter of global carbon emissions. The harder-to-reduce sectors like transportation, agriculture, and industry are shifting away from fossil fuels at a slower pace — but like electricity, still accelerating toward a better future.

That acceleration is everything, according to Singapore-based clean energy expert Assaad Razzouk. His thread summarizing the report and its implications is worth reading. His bottom line: “Nothing is more important than running faster: Speed is justice.”

—Eric Holthaus