Global Electricity Review 2020
Ember’s Global Electricity Review is a comprehensive look at the international electricity transition.
About
This report showcases a new global dataset for electricity generation & demand across 217 countries. Data for 2019 covers 85% of the world’s electricity production.
Each year, we aim to be the earliest authoritative report to give insights into last year’s global electricity generation changes – offering an unbiased picture of the transition to fossil-free electricity.
The entire dataset is freely available for others to perform their own analysis.
Executive summary
Key findings
Electricity Analyst, Ember
The global decline of coal and power sector emissions is good news for the climate but governments have to dramatically accelerate the electricity transition so that global coal generation collapses throughout the 2020s. To switch from coal into gas is just swapping one fossil fuel for another. The cheapest and quickest way to end coal generation is through a rapid roll-out of wind and solar. But without concerted policy-maker efforts to boost wind and solar, we will fail to meet climate targets. China’s growth in coal, and to some extent gas, is alarming but the answers are all there. The EU leaps out with 18% of electricity now coming from wind and solar, but with the US on 11%, China at 9% and India at 8% – the race is on.
