(Paris) The world could triple its renewable energy capacities by 2030, and achieve the objective set at COP28 in December 2023 in Dubai, provided that it supports their development in Africa and South-East Asia, says the International Energy Agency (IEA) on Wednesday.
“Renewable energy is on track to meet almost half of global electricity demand by the end of this decade,” says the IEA in its annual “Renewables 2024” report.
“The world is on track to add more than 5,500 gigawatts (GW) of new renewable energy capacity between 2024 and 2030”, which represents “almost three times the increase observed between 2017 and 2023”, underlines the OECD Energy Agency.
According to the IEA, “nearly 70 countries, which collectively represent 80% of global renewable energy capacity, are on track to meet or exceed their current renewable energy ambitions for 2030.”
This growth “is not completely in line” with the objective set at COP28 to triple global renewable energy capacity by the end of this decade, but “this tripling objective is entirely possible whether governments seize opportunities for short-term action. »
According to the IEA, global capacity “will reach 2.7 times its 2022 level by 2030.”
But to achieve a tripling, the IEA is asking countries to be more “bold” in the enhanced climate targets (NDC) that they are supposed to present by 2025 according to the Paris Agreement.
The IEA especially recommends that they strengthen international cooperation in order to reduce the financing costs of renewables (wind, solar, biogas), which are “high in emerging and developing economies” and have the effect of slowing down their growth in regions such as Africa and South-East Asia, yet with “high potential”.
The rapid deployment of renewable energy is “driven not only by efforts to reduce emissions or increase energy security, but increasingly because renewable energy today represents the cheapest option for adding new power plants in almost every country in the world,” said Fatih Birol, the director general of the IEA, quoted in the report.
China is expected to account for almost 60% of all installed renewable capacity worldwide by 2030, and as a result be home to almost half of the world’s total renewable energy capacity by the end of this decade. compared to a third in 2010.
Solar PV alone is expected to account for 80% of global renewable capacity growth by 2030, while wind is expected to double the rate of expansion between 2024 and 2030 compared to the 2017-2023 period. .