Report Highlights Indicators Short of Reaching 2030 Targets
Published under the name, “Systems Change Lab,” (including the Bezos Earth Fund, Climateworks Foundation, and World Resources Institute, among others) the State of Climate Action 2023 report assesses progress toward 2030 targets for limiting warming to 1.5 °C to support the Global Stocktake process. The report focuses on various factors, including electricity generation and usage, electric vehicles, greenhouse gas emissions, and reforestation.
In 2022, electricity generation had shares of 39% for “zero-carbon sources” (such as solar, wind, hydropower, nuclear, among others), 36% for coal, and 23% for unabated fossil fuels. This is in contrast to their respective 2030 targets of 88–91%, 4%, and 5–7%, respectively.
In 2022, the energy intensity of building operations was 140 kWh/m2 and the carbon intensity of building operations was 38 kgCO2/m2. Meanwhile, the share of new buildings that are “zero-carbon” in operation was 5% in 2020, and the retrofitting rate of buildings was less than 1% per year in 2019. This is in contrast to their respective 2030 targets of 85–120 kWh/m2, 13–16 kgCO2/m2, 100% of new buildings being “zero-carbon” in operation, and 2.5–3.5% per year for retrofitting buildings.
In the industrial sector, the share of electricity in the sector’s final energy demand was 29% and green hydrogen production was 0.027 million tons (Mt) in 2021. Meanwhile, in 2020, the carbon intensity of global cement production and global steel production were 660 kgCO2/t cement and 1,890 kgCO2/t crude steel, respectively. This is in contrast to their respective 2030 targets of 35–43% for the share of electricity, 58 Mt of green hydrogen production, 360–370 kgCO2/t cement, and 1,340–1,350 kgCO2/t crude steel, respectively.
For battery and fuel cell electric vehicles, their shares in bus sales were 3.8% and in medium- and heavy-duty commercial vehicle sales were 2.7%, respectively, in 2022. Meanwhile, the share of electric vehicles as a whole in two- and three-wheeler sales was 49%. This is in contrast to their respective 2030 targets of 60% (in bus sales), 30% (in medium- and heavy-duty vehicles), and 85% (in two- and three-wheeler sales), respectively.
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