Governments should take "radical and immediate" action to ensure the world remains on the pathway to keeping global warming below 2°C, the International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena) said today in its World Energy Transitions Outlook 2022 report.
"It is political will and resolve that will shape the transition path," the organisation said.
But it said "progress across all energy uses has been woefully inadequate." Nationally determined contributions (NDCs) made under the Paris Agreement and commitments made at the Cop 26 UN climate summit in November "showed a promising trend," but fell short, it said. NDCs should be more ambitious and "international climate collaboration should dramatically increase," Irena said.
Multiple and compounding crises — energy security, affordability and decarbonisation — underline the "pressing need to accelerate the global energy transition," Irena said. Any short-term actions must go with a "steadfast focus" on the transition in the medium and long-term, and investment in new fossil fuel infrastructure will "perpetuate the existing risks" of climate change, Irena said.
Irena's pathway to keep global warming to 1.5°C, as per the Paris Agreement, requires global investments of $5.7 trillion/yr until 2030, and it said $700 bn/yr should be redirected away from fossil fuels towards the energy transition. Public financing should double, Irena said, although it estimates most funding will come from the private sector.
This could result in reducing CO2 emissions by 37bn t/yr by 2050, but it relies on significant increases in renewable electricity and substantial improvements in energy efficiency — which together would make up 50pc of those CO2 reductions. It also calls for electrification of transport and heating, uptake of hydrogen and bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) and "last-mile use of carbon capture and storage" (CCS).
The share of renewables in the power generation mix and the addition of these — particularly wind power and bioenergy — is not on track to reach the targets required, but is moving in the right direction, Irena's report shows. The share of renewables in power generation is 26pc, with a 2050 goal of 90pc, and renewable power additions are at roughly a third of Irena's target of 836 GW/yr. Investment in renewable power and improvements in energy efficiency are also making progress, it said.
But solar power additions, renewable district heating, investment in energy efficiency and electric vehicles and linked infrastructure are all off course to meet Irena targets. Hydrogen production, CCS and BECCS and the share of renewables in final energy consumption — which Irena recommends should reach 79pc in 2050 — are also off track.
