The change of renewable energy and zero-carbon economy in an anthropogenically warming climate

Anthropogenetic global warming has led to increasingly significant environmental issues, biodiversity losses, and socioeconomic impacts. There is a rising demand for transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy (RE), reducing carbon emissions, and thus realizing zero-carbon economy. Nevertheless, it remains a challenge to achieve the carbon-free economy and mitigate global warming, without fully understanding the ongoing RE development. The major objectives of this research are to (1) investigate the changes of different RE types compared with fossil fuels in the U.S., U.K., Mexico, Canada, and China; (2) examine the relationships between RE, temperature anomalies, and GDP; and (3) propose potential strategies for zero-carbon economy and climate change. The annual mean energy, temperature, and GDP data in these five selected countries during 1980 to 2021 are collected for analysis, and their relation-ships are addressed through Pearson's correlation analysis, along with significance test. The results suggest an increasing trend of RE and rising RE-fossil fuels ratio during the past four decades. All five countries either showed exponential or linear increasing trends in GDP and RE. The correlation analysis suggests a significantly positive correlation between RE and GDP in both countries. For example, different from the U.S., the synchronized growth in RE and fossil fuels in China leads to a significantly positive correlation between these two. All five countries provide their unique data of renewable development, which can stimulate the research and enable further study. This study will shed light over possible strategic plans for an optimized use of renewable energy, ensuring below 1.5C temperature rise, and reaching carbon neutrality by 2050.