In recent years, one bright spot among the gloomy climate predictions has come from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) – an intergovernmental body based in Abu Dhabi – which has consistently highlighted the falling costs and increasing efficiency of clean energy sources, such as solar and wind.
On Tuesday, IRENA launched its latest progress reportwho reiterated the impressive rise in renewable energy – 2024 saw a record 582 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity addition – but warned that this is still far from the annual increase needed to wean us off the fossil fuels that accelerate global warming.
“The clean energy revolution is unstoppable,” Mr. Guterres said in response to the study.
“Renewable energy is deployed faster and more cheaply than fossil fuels, boosting growth, jobs and affordable energy.. But the window for keeping the 1.5°C limit within reach is quickly closing. We must scale up, scale up and accelerate the just energy transition – for everyone, everywhere.
Indonesia is modernizing its electricity network.
Still off track
At the UN COP28 climate conference, governments committed to producing 11.2 terawatts of energy from renewable sources by 2030.
So while the 2024 figure is impressive, it is still far from the 1,122 GW of capacity that needs to be added each year, if this target is to be reached on time.
The report calls on the world’s richest countries to take the lead in moving away from polluting energy sources such as coal and oil and increase their share of renewable energy to around 20 percent of global capacity by the end of the decade.
A major increase in investment for the transition is urgently needed, the report says, to finance the modernization of electricity grids, supply chains and the manufacturing of clean technologies for solar, wind, batteries and hydrogen.
Originally published at Almouwatin.com
