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World will miss 2030 renewable energy target – report

Posted on by darion

Despite the focus on renewable energy sources, growth is not fast enough. Source: Ivan Soto Cobos/Shutterstock.com.

The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) predicts that the world will miss its target of tripling renewable energy capacity by 2030 if capacity continues to grow at a slow pace.

According to the IRENA report, 473 GW of renewable capacity was added last year, an increase of 14% compared to the previous year and the largest annual increase since 2000.

But to achieve the ambitious target, the world will need to add renewable capacity at a rate of 16.4% per year until 2030, according to IRENA. At the current rate of 14%, the world would be 1.5 TW short.

Francesco La Camera, Director General of IRENA, said: “Renewable energy is increasingly outperforming fossil fuels, but this is not the time for complacency. If we maintain the current pace of growth, we will not achieve the tripling of the renewable energy target agreed in the UAE Consensus at COP28.”

Some industries are underperforming and could do more to drive the transition to renewable energy. For example, a recent report by the American Clean Power Association highlighted that offshore wind capacity in the U.S. will reach 14 GW by 2030, 16 GW less than the 30 GW target set by the Biden administration in 2021.

The United States currently has just 174 MW of installed offshore wind capacity, far outpacing its rival, China, which has almost 38 GW.

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What’s more, according to data released by the Energy Information Administration, electricity production from wind turbines in the U.S. fell in 2023 for the first time since the 1990s, despite 6.2 GW of wind capacity being installed last year.

Since 2020, countries participating in the Paris Agreement have been required to submit new or updated climate targets every five years. Next year, they will have to include a revised ambition for 2030.