The Energy Digital Year in Stories: July

December 30, 2024

undefined mins

Paris 2024 begins on Friday, 26 July

We look at the articles that made the news across the energy space 2024. Today, it is July’s turn, featuring Starbucks, Toyota, the IEA & the 2024 Olympics

Driving Energy Efficiency at the Paris 2024 Olympics

Ahead of the start of the 2024 Olympics, excitement was building — and not just for the sporting greats.

The four-yearly sporting extravaganza — this year held in Paris, France — set a new standard for energy efficiency and sustainability when it comes to major international events.

Innovative energy initiatives and sustainable practices were implemented left, right and centre to minimise the environmental impact of the games and promote a greener future, as well as to make this years’ games the most sustainable to date.

It’s no secret that eco-conscious partnerships and initiatives were at the core of the games as organisers aimed to cut carbon emissions in half. This covers everything from the construction of venues to the competitors and spectators’ travel.

Based on the 2015 Paris Agreement, event organisers for Paris 2024 created a sustainable culture based on five key sustainability themes.

They are:

Climate change
Resource management
Natural environment and biodiversity
Human rights, labour and fair business practices
Involvement, cooperation and communications

For the Paris 2024 organising committee, sustainability is a highly visible subject and has been at the forefront of their planning efforts since it won the bid in 2017.

It is learning from the last Olympics, the 2020 Tokyo Olympics — held in 2021 due to the pandemic — where the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC’s) post-event sustainability report declared “Tokyo 2020 goes beyond carbon neutrality and helps create a more ‘sustainable society’”.

“The Tokyo 2020 Games set out to raise awareness of the role of sport in society and our aim was to use the Games as an opportunity to show how sport can help fulfil our responsibility to resolving the issues involved in achieving a sustainable society,” said Tokyo 2020 President Hashimoto Seiko.

Can Global Coal Demand Decrease to Meet 2050 Net Zero Goals?

Worldwide, efforts to combat climate change continue to intensify in the pursuit of net zero. However, as the availability and reliability of renewables continues to grow, the demand for coal remains surprisingly resilient.

Coal, a significant contributor to carbon emissions globally, continues to be relied upon thanks to rising electricity needs. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), coal demand across the world is expected to remain stable in 2024 and 2025, rather than decreasing.

The IEA’s report highlights a complex energy landscape, driven by the electricity needs of major economies like China and India, and how coal will continue to play a role.

This however comes after the IEA said investment in clean energy in 2024 is set to be twice the amount going to fossil fuels.

So, why is coal still a factor influencing the energy landscape and how does it come into play as the world navigates the road to net zero?

Net Zero by 2050 is a global framework that has encouraged businesses, governments and countries, to name a few, to announce pledges of net zero emissions in the coming decades — and the sheer number of those continues to grow.

“We are witnessing the beginning of the end of the fossil fuel era and we have to prepare ourselves for the next era,” Dr Fatih Birol, Executive Director of the IEA said off the back of another IEA study which, for the first time, forecast that demand for oil, natural gas and coal will all peak before 2030.