The numbers are there, despite all the noise: renewable energies, are the clearest bet for investors in the electricity sector. Last year there was a “mass increase” of solar, wind and hydroelectric capacity on the planet, the International Agency for Renewable Energies () explained on Wednesday in its balance on 2024. In just 12 months 585 Gigawatts of new power were added, which represents an record increase of 15.1%. It is “good news” in the middle of a world pregnant with “much uncertainty and instability,” said the United Nations Secretary General, who has virtually intervened in the Dialogues forum on the Climate of Petersberg, an appointment that is celebrated in Berlin and that aspires to be an impulse in the fight against global warming to place it again in the center of the international agenda.
Guterres has stressed one of the key data of the report: “Renewable energies represented more than 92% of the entire electricity generation capacity installed last year.” In other words: “The amount of renewable energies aggregates represents more than the total electricity capacity of Brazil and Japan combined.”
That advance of 15.1% of 2024 is good news, but one more step to arrive is still needed. In that appointment, the objective of tripling renewable power by 2030 was marked. To do this, IRENA points out this Wednesday, the renewable capacity must now increase from now on 16.6% annually from here at the end of the decade.
A fundamental piece will be the climatic plans that all the countries that significant to the Paris Agreement must present this year. They should have done so in February,: until next September, when he plans to call an international meeting to take stock of these plans, known for the acronym in English NDC. In those documents, countries must draw their road map to reduce their greenhouse emissions from here to 2035.
“Investors need certainty and predictability,” Guterres explained when referring to NDC. “These new plans are a unique opportunity to meet and establish a coherent vision for a fair green transition,” he added. “Together, global emissions should reduce by 60% by 2035, compared to 2019, and contribute to the global energy transition objectives of the COP28”, that is, to the objective set in Dubai to triple the renewable power by the end of this decade.
“All countries must take a step forward,” Guterres requested, who, however, has warned that the process must be led by G20 countries. so that they can also rise to the revolution of renewables and can adapt to the impacts of a climate change they suffer but of which they are the least responsible.
In his speech, Guterres has urged countries to “take advantage of this moment” to keep the “prize”, in reference to the economic benefits and all kinds that renewable to nations contribute: “They are promoting growth, creating jobs, reducing energy invoices and cleaning our air.” The head of the UN, in addition, has also focused on the competitiveness of renewables: “Since 2010, the average cost of wind energy has collapsed 60%.”
“The continuous growth of renewable energies that we witness every year is proof that renewable energies are economically viable and easily deployable,” said the general director of Irena, Francesco La Camera, through a statement. “Every year they continue to beat their own expansion records, but we also face the same challenges of regional great disparities,” he added. According to the report of this agency, most of the 2024 increase occurred in Asia, specifically, in China, which contributed almost 64% of world aggregate capacity. Meanwhile, Central America and the Caribbean was the one that contributed the least, with only 3.2%.
Tenth Anniversary of the Paris Agreement
This year the tenth anniversary of the Guterres is celebrated, he wanted to highlight the importance of the “advances” achieved since then in the fight against climate change. “Now, 90% of global emissions are covered by zero net emissions objectives,” he said. “A decade ago, the planet was aimed at an increase in the global temperature of more than four degrees Celsius. Today, the national climate plans of the countries, or NDC, if they are fulfilled in their entirety, will bring us closer to an increase of 2.6 degrees,” said the UN Secretary General.
But Guterres has also wanted to warn of the increase in the impacts of this crisis. “It seems that the records break at every step: the hottest day of the hottest month, of the hottest year of the hottest decade in history,” he summarized. Guterres also recalled that the report published last week by the World Meteorological Organization (OMM) showed an alarming situation: “Almost all climatic indicators reached new and increasingly dangerous heights.”
