EU fossil fuel CO2 emissions hit 60-year low | Fossil emissions ‘finally back to 1960s levels’, say analysts, but they warn levels are still falling too slowly
This is really positive news especially as most the efficiency savings come from things that are only at the start of their roll-out, a lot of the infrastructure development for solar and wind is already in place with construction already in progress for huge amounts of generation. It likely also that the lower demand for electricity comes in part due to more efficient devices gaining market share; better water heaters, heat-pumps, LED lighting, etc combined with better insulation and more focus on efficiency - plus of course home solar or similar, an increasing amount of people are at least partly off-grid and use home generated power which reduces demand on the power grid.
We also have some really useful new tech starting to reach market like tidal generation, tandem solar cells, Perovskite (which we've been hearing about for ages but they're actually starting to build factories), e-fuels (again long heralded but actually starting to move into commercial production), and various new electric planes, boats, charging technologies, energy storage mediums, and etc all of which will help increase the rate of adoption and help decrease carbon emissions.
Last year was also good for a lot of new climate legislation on EU level. The big once were a sales ban of fossil fuel cars by 2035 and a second emissions trading scheme for transport and heating. Also the current emissions trading scheme has had certificates removed in the coming years.
Lets see how it will continue to go, but as it stands the EU is 1t above global per capita CO2 emissions. That is going to create some interesting dynamics in climate policy, with the EU gaining a bit more credibility.