The global energy transition continues to drag on

15.10.2025

Source: E & M powernews

Last year, more renewable energy plants were built than ever before. But that's not enough, according to a report by Irena on the upcoming climate conference in Brazil.

Despite another record year for the construction of renewable energy plants, the world is still lagging behind the targets agreed at the Cop 28 climate conference in Dubai in 2023. This is shown by the progress report of the International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena) in cooperation with the Cop 30 Presidency of Brazil and the Global Renewables Alliance, which has now been presented in Brasilia.

"Despite record progress last year, the world is falling short of its renewable energy and energy efficiency targets," the report states. Around 582,000 MW of new renewable energy capacity was installed worldwide in 2024. This represents an increase of 15 percent compared to the previous year and thus "the highest ever recorded".

However, the pace is not sufficient to achieve the target set in Dubai 2023 of tripling global renewables to 11.2 million MW by 2030. This would require an annual increase of over 1.1 million MW from 2025 onwards - a growth rate of around 16.6 percent per year, Irena added. Photovoltaics once again made the largest contribution with 452,000 MW of newly installed capacity - more than three quarters of global expansion. Wind power plants followed with 114,000 MW, while hydropower, bioenergy, geothermal energy and solar thermal power plants together only contributed around 15,000 MW. This means that the expansion of important technologies outside of PV is stagnating well below the level required to achieve the 1.5 degree pathway.

Energy efficiency is making little progress

At the same time, little progress is being made in improving energy efficiency. Global energy intensity rose by just 1 percent in 2024 - at least 4 percent per year would be needed to achieve the agreed doubling of efficiency by 2030. According to the report, the annual improvement must now be as high as 5 percent in order to meet the target. There is a considerable amount of catching up to do, particularly in the areas of buildings, transport and industry.

For the period from 2025 to 2030, the report estimates 30 trillion US dollars (28.2 trillion euros) in total global investment in renewables, grids, storage and efficiency measures - an average of around 5 trillion US dollars per year. The annual capital requirement for the expansion of renewables alone would therefore have to more than double to around 1.4 trillion US dollars

Irena and the partners are therefore calling on governments to adapt their national climate plans in the run-up to COP 30 and to set binding expansion targets for renewables. At the same time, access to funding should be significantly improved. This is the only way to achieve the 1.5-degree pathway. The UN Climate Change Conference 2025, Cop 30, will take place in Belem, Brazil, from November 10 to 21, 2025.

The report "Delivering on the UAE Consensus" can be downloaded from the website of the International Renewable Energy Agency.

Author: Stefan Sagmeister