Big four: global momentum - March 2024 - The Energy & Climate Intelligence Unit

The carbon climb of 2023 hides the facts on the ground for the Big Four, such as the vast increases in renewable power capacity and the exponential uptake of electric vehicles (EVs), which are set to slash emissions in the years to come. [...] The pressure from the faltering of the BRI has not helped the slow-down in China’s economic growth in the last few years – forecast by Bloomberg in 2030 to be 3.5%, or less than half the 8.4% level it was in 2021. [...] En route to that, its solar capacity had hit 228 GW in the first quarter of 2023 – more than the rest of the world combined – with another 379 GW of solar under construction; triple that of the US and double the EU. [...] Similarly to the scale of renewables deployment, China has planted more trees in that period than the whole of the rest of the world combined, leading to an annual net gain in forest areas of some two million hectares – fourfold that of second-placed Australia, and 20 times the US’ rate. [...] Indeed, the IRA has already pushed the US to the top of Ernst and Young’s ranking of countries on their renewable energy investments, ahead of the UK which has slipped down the rankings in 2023.