World’s renewables target ‘still far from reach’

A landmark pledge made by countries less than two years ago to triple the world’s renewable capacity by 2030 already looks in danger of not being met, a new report finds.

- JOHN AINGER

Targets put forward by national governments for the rollout of technologies like wind and solar will bring global installations far short of what countries committed to at the United Nations COP28 summit in 2023, according to Ember, a climate think tank. The renewable goal was agreed in Dubai as part of a hard-fought deal to commit to a transition away from fossil fuel.

Ember calculated the world will hit just 7.4 terawatts of renewable energy capacity by 2030, a little more than double the 3.4 terawatts installed in 2022, based on national targets. The world needs 11 terawatts in order to meet the tripling goal.

“There is a real disconnect between the sort of high-level agreement to sign pledges at COP and then the reality of how electricity planning is done,’ Katye Altieri, global electricity analyst at Ember, said. “National targets send policy signals to the market, and I think countries have lost sight of that.”