Shutterstock As you might have heard, the planet is warming up , and in response, people are trying to switch to cleaner energy, to heat it up less, or at least more slowly. So how’s that going? A report released this month goes into that question in considerable detail. The Renewables Global Status Report (GSR), released annually by the Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century (REN21, a think tank), digs into the growth rates of various energy sources, the flows of clean energy investment, and the world’s progress on its sustainability goals. It is a treasure trove of information. It is also … really long. 250 pages long. So many words! In an effort to save you, the modern information consumer, precious time, I have gone through the report and extracted the 12 charts and graphs that best tell the story of clean energy as of 2018. Before we get started, a few background facts. First, we’re still moving in the wrong direction. Global carbon emissions aren’t falling fast enough. In fact, they aren’t falling at all; they were up 1.7 percent in 2018 . Second, we’re still pushing in the wrong direction. Globally, subsidies to fossil […]
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