The BP Statistical Review of World Energy for 2017 shows that global coal production fell 6.0 percent in 2016, making it the largest decline in the history of BP’s survey that has been conducted annually for over 60 years.
China, the world’s biggest energy consumer, burned the least amount of coal in six years and saw coal production drop by nearly 8.0 percent. And in the United States, coal production dropped by 19 percent, a level last seen in the 1970s. Globally, in 2016, coal consumption dropped by 28 percent, the lowest since 2004.
However, wind and solar power continued to grow, aided by technological advances. Even though renewables account for only 4.0 percent of total global energy consumption, they accounted for almost one-third of primary energy use in 2016.
Wind provided more than half of renewables growth, while solar energy contributed almost a third despite accounting for only 18 percent of the total, according to the report.
From 2003 to 2013, global carbon emissions grew at a rate of about 2.5 percent annually. However, in the past three years, greenhouse gas emissions have flattened, remaining stagnant. CO2 emissions from energy consumption grew just 0.1 percent globally in 2016.
Jonathan Marshall, an analyst at the London-based Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, said by email to Bloomberg, that while some of this may reflect weakened economic growth globally, the majority reflects the faster decline in “the average amount of carbon emitted per unit of GDP.”
