The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) called on Tuesday for a more than fourfold increase in global investments in energy transition technologies to align with commitments made under the Paris Climate Agreement. The agency stated that investments in renewable energy technologies reached a record level of $1.3 trillion last year, but this figure must rise to around $5 trillion annually to meet the primary goal of the Paris Agreement of preventing global temperatures from exceeding 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
It pointed out that the world needs approximately $35 trillion for transition technology by 2030, which includes efficiency improvements, electricity, network expansion, and resilience. It added that renewable energy deployment must grow from about 3,000 gigawatts annually currently to over 10,000 gigawatts by 2030, indicating that there is a need for greater equity in the expansion of renewable energy between industrialized and developing countries.
The share of new renewable energy projects in China, the European Union, and the United States accounted for two-thirds of the installed operating capacity last year, while in Africa it was only 1 percent of the installed capacity. The agency called for the planned investments in fossil fuels, which total around $1 trillion in fossil fuel investments annually by 2030, to be redirected toward renewable energy technologies and their infrastructure.
