Renewable energy played a “critical role” in stalling global energy-related carbon dioxide emissions in 2015, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).
The IEA said in preliminary data released today that CO2 emissions remained flat for the second year in a row last year at 32.1bn tonnes.
Renewables accounted for about 90% of new electricity generation in 2015, with wind alone producing more than half, IEA said.
It added that the global economy continued to grow by more than 3%, “offering further evidence that the link between economic growth and emissions growth is weakening”.
IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said: “The new figures confirm last year’s surprising but welcome news: we now have seen two straight years of greenhouse gas emissions decoupling from economic growth.”
IEA said more details on the data and analysis will be included in a World Energy Outlook special report on energy and air quality that will be released at the end of June.
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