Global renewables and energy efficiency pledge at COP28

On December 2, 118 countries signed a renewable energy pledge at the ongoing COP28 climate summit to triple the world’s green energy capacity to 11,000 GW by 2030, thereby, reducing the reliance on fossil fuels in generating energy.

According to the “Global Renewables and Energy Efficiency Pledge”, countries have to “double the global average annual rate of energy efficiency improvements from around 2% to over 4% every year until 2030”. By checking the rise in emissions, governments hope to curtail global average temperature below the 2-degree Celsius temperature limit since pre-industrial times, if not the ambitious 1.5 degree Celsius of the 2015 Paris Agreement.

The pledge is neither legally binding nor a part of the official COP28 calendar. COP28 also has the issue of tripling renewable energy on its agenda, the outcome of which is being keenly awaited. What the pledge does is indicate that world leaders want to be more active in checking global emissions.

Incidentally, the International Energy Agency (IEA) has found that, between 2022 and 2027, renewables will account for over 90% of global electricity capacity expansion. “The upward revision is mainly driven by China, the EU, the US and India, which are all implementing existing policies and regulatory and market reforms, while also introducing new ones more quickly than expected in reaction to the energy crisis,” says IEA.

Solar, wind, hydropower and biofuels are seen as the fuels of the future, even in developing countries. According to the pledge, the tripling of renewable energy is expected to practically eliminate fossil fuels as energy sources by 2050.

Renewable energy is already picking up pace across the world, thanks to policies in recent years enabling an increase in the generation capacity of renewables, especially solar photovoltaics and wind power.

According to the IEA, “over 2022-2027, renewables are seen growing by almost 2,400 GW in our main forecast, equal to the entire installed power capacity of China today. That’s an 85% acceleration from the previous five years… making it our largest ever upward revision”.

Last year, India’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy said that the country was the world’s third-largest producer of renewable energy, with 40% of its installed energy capacity coming from non-fossil fuel sources. India has announced its aim to meet 50% of its electricity demands from renewable energy sources by 2030 and reach net zero emissions by 2070.

The IEA has found that the electricity sector is the brightest spot globally for renewables, with the strong growth of solar photovoltaics and wind energy in recent years, building on the already significant contribution of hydropower. “But electricity accounts for only a fifth of global energy consumption and finding a greater role for renewable energy sources in transportation and heating remains critical to the energy transition,” it says.

Across the globe, the deployment of renewables is also running into trouble due to rising costs, labour constraints, and supply chain issues. These have forced project delays and cancellations in recent months, costing leading developers billions of dollars in write-offs, according to Reuters.

The pledge was spearheaded by the EU, the US and the UAE and supported by Brazil, Nigeria, Australia, Japan, Canada, Chile and Barbados. India and China have stayed away as the initiative calls for phasing down of coal and “ending the continued investment in unabated new coal-fired power plants”. In September 2023, however, India had already supported, as part of the G20, a commitment to work towards tripling global renewable energy capacity by 2030. The announcement was one of the strongest declarations to come out of the G20. All eyes are now on the result of discussions at COP28.