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From late yesterday -- "In blow to climate, coal plants emitted more than ever in 2018" washingtonpost.com/climate-enviro… (reporting on dire @IEA findings with @brady_dennis) 
2. In essence, the @IEA has found that as the global economy has grown in the last year, the world is turning to every type of energy possible to satisfy increasing demand. So that means wind and solar, yes, but it also means nuclear, lots of natural gas, and yes, even more coal.
3. As a result, while renewables are growing fast -- and energy efficiency keeps improving -- global emissions are nonetheless still rising. And so are emissions from coal plants, which set a new record high of over 10 gigatons of CO2 emissions last year.
4. This is, of course, totally out of line with what climate research says needs to happen to avoid quickly escalating impacts.
5. The @IPCC_CH's highly influential report on 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7F) found that we need a nearly 1/2 reduction in total greenhouse gas emissions, and something like a 3/4 cut in coal emissions, by 2030.
6. That's if we want to preserve a good chance of holding warming to 1.5C (without a large overshoot). In other words, if we only want to see about .5C more warming than we've had so far in this century. And maybe still have some coral reefs around.
7. So -- rising total emissions, and rising coal emissions, are greatly at odds with what scientists are saying is necessary to stay in a somewhat "safe" climate zone.
8. And with this emissions upswing continuing through 2018 -- so say the latest figures -- we can't even know that any of these emissions have peaked yet, not for some time.
9. We'll see how 2019 goes. But there aren't many more years that emissions can rise before that 1.5C scenario comes to look like an academic exercise -- and it'll be time to start studying the difference between 2C of warming, and 2.5. /end
