Wind and solar power supplied 10 per cent of global electricity demand in the first half of this year, double the 2015 level and a record, the report said.In the first half of 2020, despite a 3% drop in global demand for electricity due to the COVID-19 outbreak, wind and solar power are still up 14% year on year.For the 48 countries and regions included in the report, wind and solar power generation increased from 992 TERawatt hours in 2019 to 1,129 terawatt hours in the first half of 2020.Global coal-fired power generation fell 8.3 percent in the first half of 2020 compared with the first half of 2019.After a 3 per cent year-on-year decline in 2019, it was the biggest drop since 1990.A major factor driving the decline in coal power generation is the decline in electricity demand caused by the global epidemic, but the increase in wind and solar power generation and higher market share are also the main reasons for the decline in coal power generation.

Wind and solar power accounted for 8.6% of China's electricity consumption in 2019 (up from 8.1% globally).While e coal power is declining rapidly around the world, it is declining even more slowly in China.In the first half of 2020, China's coal-fired power generation fell by about 2 per cent compared with the same period last year, well below the global decline.China's share of global coal power generation increased from 50% in 2019 to 54% in the first half of 2020.Although the coVID-19 outbreak has not yet had an impact on wind and solar power demand.However, the global epidemic has affected the speed of installation of new wind and solar power installations by 2020;The International Energy Agency forecasts a 13 per cent fall in new electricity generation from renewable sources by 2020, to the lowest level since 2015."Countries around the world are working on building more wind points and photovoltaic panels to replace coal power," said DaveJones, senior electricity analyst at Ember.To limit the rise in global temperatures to 1.5C, coal electricity generation would have to fall by 13 per cent a year over the next decade.But the fact that coal power generation fell by only 8 per cent in the first half of this year, even though the impact of coVID-19 has curbed demand overall, shows that we are still off track for the energy transition.We have transformational solutions and it's working, it's just not moving fast enough."