India is burning more coal as electricity demand in the country is rising amid recent heat waves,CNBC reported on Monday.India is expected to experience higher temperatures this month,which could result in"heat wave conditions across parts of Northwest,Central and West India,along with the East Coast,"the government said in a release on May 2.
The situation in India,where heat waves cause higher electricity demand,is far from an isolated case,and it is highly likely to become a thorny issue faced by other economies in the coming summer.The World Meteorological Organization(WMO)said in a news release last month that an El Niño event is expected to develop from mid-2026.
The latest monthly Global Seasonal Climate Update from WMO showed that sea-surface temperatures are growing rapidly,pointing to a likely return of El Niño as early as May-July 2026.Some forecasts indicate there is a"nearly global dominance of above-normal land surface temperatures"in the three-month period,with regional variations in rainfall patterns.
The 2023-24 El Niño pushed the average global surface temperature to peak at 1.58 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels,associated with a marked record year-on-year rise of 0.36 degrees.
Now,as the shadow of El Niño looms again,there is every reason to worry that similar heat waves may return.This means that many countries are likely to suffer prolonged high temperatures this summer,pushing grid loads to periodic peaks.
From the perspective of energy security,relying on traditional fossil fuels such as coal to cope with a sudden increase in electricity in the short term has some practical rationality.
Traditional fossil fuels have developed over a long period,and a relatively mature and stable supply system has formed.Fossil fuels can quickly provide support when facing sudden peaks in energy demand.Even some developed European countries,which are vigorously promoting green energy transformation,may have to keep more coal-fired power plants online longer than planned.
However,this is not a sustainable solution.Over-reliance on traditional energy sources such as coal and oil for power supply can only address temporary power needs,but it will increase carbon dioxide emissions and worsen global warming.The more that traditional energy sources are excavated and used to ensure power supplies,the more the new green energy transition in which traditional energy transformation toward new energy sources becomes inevitable.
The global new energy industry is in a critical phase of scaling and infrastructure building,yet it repeatedly encounters headwinds from trade protectionism and politically motivated market barriers.
Driven by industrial competition and geopolitical calculations,some countries have set up barriers,technology blockades,and trade restrictions,fragmenting global collaboration in solar,wind,energy storage,and other sectors.This hinders the sharing of new-energy technologies and the complementarity of production capacity,slowing down the overall pace of global low-carbon transition.Such practices,while ostensibly protecting domestic industries,will significantly raise the cost of clean energy adoption and delay global emissions reduction.
Moreover,the urgency of energy transition is compounded by a rapidly closing climate window.
Climate science shows that to keep global warming within a relatively safe range,substantial reductions in carbon dioxide emissions must be achieved within the next few years.
While national climate plans have delivered some progress,it is nowhere near fast enough,which is why we still need unprecedented emissions cuts in an increasingly tight window,with an increasingly challenging geopolitical backdrop,according to Inger Andersen,executive director of the UN Environment Programme.
Extreme climate knows no borders.The coming summer is both a critical period for the world to cope with high temperatures and ensure stable energy supply,and an important opportunity for the international community to build climate consensus and deepen clean energy cooperation.
The global community needs to build a green development consensus,accelerate the layout of green energy related industries together,increase investment in solar,wind,hydro,storage and other clean energy infrastructure,improve cross-regional energy allocation cooperation mechanism,continuously upgrade smart grid rollout,and do the best to enhance the resilience of energy supply under extreme weather patterns.
