Nations are falling short of the objective agreed upon at UN climate talks to triple renewable energy capacity by 2030 as part of efforts to combat global warming, the International Energy Agency said on Tuesday.
An IEA examination of roughly 150 nations’ policies, plans, and forecasts revealed that they could achieve 8,000 gigawatts of renewable power capacity in six years.
This would be far short of the 11,000 GW agreed at the COP28 climate meetings in Dubai late last year in order to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
“Countries’ ambitions and implementation plans are not yet in line with the key goal set at COP28,” the International Energy Agency stated.
“But governments have tools to step up in coming months” through their Nationally Determined Contributions, the Paris-based organization that advises developed countries said in a statement accompanying its research. NDCs are each country’s targets for reducing emissions of greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming.
“The tripling target is ambitious but achievable—though only if governments quickly turn promises into plans of action,” said IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol.
Mass deployment of solar, wind, and other renewable energy is critical to meeting another significant goal achieved at COP28: the shift away from fossil fuels.
Since the landmark Paris Agreement on Climate Crisis in 2015, the world has installed an average of 11% of new renewable power plants every year as prices have dropped substantially.
Last year alone, about 510 GW of renewable capacity was added, a 50 percent boost from 2022 to record the greatest growth rate in the preceding two decades, according to the IEA.
Also Read: How Geopolitical Tensions Could Impede Climate Action
