Increase in energy use

A 2.3 per cent jump in global energy demand last year outstripped the expansion of renewables and helped drive record-high greenhouse gas emissions, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said yesterday.

Fossil fuels satisfied almost 70 per cent of that growth for the second year running.

Double-digit growth in solar and wind power generation, 31 per cent for solar, was still not fast enough to meet soaring electricity demand that also pushed up the use of coal, the most carbon-intensive of fuels.