“There is a gap” in the world’s effort to meet the target of tripling renewable electricity generation by 2030, “but the gap is bridgeable”, says a new report.
The report from the International Energy Agency tracks the progress made by countries in moving away from fossil fuels as they look to triple renewable electricity generation by 2030.
Nearly 200 countries made major collective pledges on energy at the COP28 climate summit in Dubai to keep within reach of the Paris Agreement target of limiting global warming to 1.5°C.
The report found that to achieve these ambitions, most countries needed to speed up the implementation of green policies, saying: “Countries’ cumulative ambitions are currently not in line with the goal of tripling renewable capacity this decade.”
IEA executive director Fatih Birol said: “The tripling target is ambitious but achievable – though only if governments quickly turn promises into plans of action. Countries worldwide have a major opportunity to accelerate progress towards a more secure, affordable and sustainable energy system.”
The report found that many governments fail to include targets and policies on renewables in their national action plans, despite them being a requirement under the Paris Agreements, the IEA said.
The IEA scrutinised the domestic policies and targets of nearly 150 countries, finding they led to around 8,000GW of renewable energy capacity by 2030.
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But this is around only 70% of what is necessary to reach 11,000GW of capacity, the amount needed for the tripling goal which was agreed at the Cop28 UN climate summit in Dubai last year.
The report adds: “Even if all countries were to fully implement their current ambitions, the world would fall 30% short of tripling global renewable capacity to over 11 000 GW by 2030.”
It said: “The current ambitions of advanced economies and of emerging and developing economies are not aligned with the COP28 pledge to triple global renewable power capacity by 2030, which is one of the key elements needed to get on track for the IEA’s pathway to achieving net zero emissions by mid-century and limiting warming to 1.5°C.
“For advanced economies, the level of ambition needs to increase from a growth factor of 1.9 to 2.5. For emerging and developing economies, the growth factor should rise from 2.4 to 3.4.”
Earlier this year, data from the IEA showed the UK was lagging behind major Western European economies on low-carbon energy policy spend, new data shows.
