The world will have to expand renewables capacity at a minimum rate of 16.4% per year through to 2030 to meet targets pledged at COP28, according to new statistics from IRENA.
IRENA’s latest report underscores a key risk: the world may fail to achieve its 11.2 TW target by 2030. The report reveals that renewables capacity grew by a record 14% in 2023. If this growth rate continues, IRENA said that the world could fall short by 1.5 TW, or 13.5%, of its target by 2030.
“Renewable energy has been increasingly outperforming fossil fuels, but it is not the time to be complacent. Renewables must grow at higher speed and scale,” said IRENA Director-General Francesco La Camera. “Today’s report is a wake-up call for the entire world.”
COP28 President Sultan Al Jaber said that reaching the target will require more collaboration between governments, the private sector, multilateral organizations, and civil society.
“Governments need to set explicit renewable energy targets, look at actions like accelerating permitting and expanding grid connections, and implement smart policies that push industries to step up and incentivise the private sector to invest,” Al Jaber said. “Above all, we must change the narrative that climate investment is a burden to it being an unprecedented opportunity for shared socio-economic development.”
In June, the International Energy Agency published a report on the COP28 tripling renewable capacity pledge, after finding only only 14 of 194 National Determined Contributions from countries worldwide explicitly lay out 2030 targets for renewables capacity.
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