Analysts are hailing the “beginning of the end of the fossil age” with emissions from the dirtiest fuels in the power sector set to fall from this year.

Global electricity generation is responsible for more greenhouse gas than any other sector.

But change is on the horizon, a new study has concluded, with wind and solar supplying a record 12% of global power in 2022, up from 10% in 2021.

And from this year those renewables are expected to “push the world into a new era of falling fossil [fuel power] generation” the report from energy think tank Ember said.

“In this decisive decade for the climate, it is the beginning of the end of the fossil age,” said lead author Małgorzata Wiatros-Motyka. “We are entering the clean power era.”

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Wind generation increased by 17% in 2022, enough to power almost all of the UK.

But solar was the fastest-growing source of electricity for the 18th year in a row, rising by 24% year-on-year, adding enough electricity to power all of South Africa.

This surge in wind and solar satisfied 80% of the increased demand, as the world consumes ever more electricity to power cars, personal devices and heating systems.

It was this rise that staved off a feared resurgence of coal amid the gas crisis, with coal generation rising only 1.1%.

However, the world is still building new coal power plants, in spite of pledges to phase down coal, primarily in manufacturing and population giant China.

But it will “take much more” to reach 41% wind and solar electricity worldwide by 2030, the report said, as all governments have agreed is necessary in order to reach net zero emissions by 2050.

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“Change is coming fast”, said Ms Wiatros-Motyka. “Clean electricity will reshape the global economy, from transport to industry and beyond.”

But it “all depends on the actions taken now by governments, businesses and citizens to put the world on a pathway to clean power by 2040”, so the whole economy can reach net zero by 2050, she said.

Ember’s fourth annual Global Electricity Review combed through electricity data from last year from 78 countries, representing 93% of global electricity demand.

The aim was to assess the transition to clean power as the world seeks to hit climate targets and avoid even worse impacts of climate change that are already hitting, such as via drought, rising sea levels and melting glaciers.

While clean power in the form of renewables and nuclear reached 39% of global electricity, a new record high, coal power remained the single largest source of electricity worldwide, bringing in 36%.

Gas power generation fell very slightly, by -0.2% globally, in 2022.

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