Over 250 Organizations Call to Triple Renewables by 2030 – GWC Mag

A worldwide, multi-stakeholder coalition responsible for renewable energy development has published an open letter to world leaders, calling for a target of tripling renewables by 2030.

The letter asks for an official agreement to be established at COP28 later this year to scale-up renewables to a capacity of 11,000 GW. The World Energy Transitions Outlook, created by the International Renewable Energy Agency, explains that immediate action must be taken to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Renewable energies, including wind, solar, hydropower, geothermal, and others, offer the quickest, most cost-effective route to decarbonize the world economy.

Initiated by the Global Renewables Alliance, the letter includes international government organizations, producers, buyers, environmental groups, supply chain actors, civil society, and youth. Signatories included companies and organizations from all six populated continents, and over half of the stakeholders are based in the Asia-Pacific region, Africa, and Latin America.

This request follows the recent G20 summit in India, where world leaders agreed to pursue and encourage efforts to triple renewable capacity by 2030. An expected $4 trillion will need to be spent to reach this goal.

“While there has been progress at the recent G20 summit in New Delhi, actions speak louder than ambition,” said Bruce Douglas, CEO of the Global Renewables Alliance. “The renewables industry is ready, willing, and able to step up but we need policymakers to take urgent action to deliver on the goals of the Paris Agreement. It is imperative that we deploy the renewable industry’s solutions at scale today to make net zero by 2050 a reality and help deliver a clean, secure, and just energy transition.”

Open Letter’s Suggestions for Renewables Development

The open letter includes seven major action areas involved in its plan to triple renewables.

One such suggestion is creating an urgent plan for scaling up renewable energy to grids worldwide. The coalition recommends a streamlined process to speed up permitting for grid-scale energy projects and asks policymakers to mandate lead times for administrative, licensing, and environmental permitting stages of project development. This will also require building out electricity grids and heat systems for large volumes of renewables and energy storage.

The coalition also calls for a nature-positive, socially just energy transition. Along with companies committing to nature-based targets amidst a growing biodiversity crisis, the energy transition should accordingly take wider environmental and biodiversity strategies into consideration.

A just energy transition, according to the letter, should include increased North-South collaboration and policies aimed at creating a level playing field in energy subsidies. Broadly, the letter explains that the energy transition should allow for equitable access to affordable and reliable clean energy.