World Leaders Call for Investment in Clean Energy

• World leaders have called for far more investment in renewable energy to tackle climate change.
• A coalition of some of the world’s biggest companies, finance houses, and cities called Mission 2025 urged governments to adopt policies that could unleash up to $1 trillion in clean energy investments by 2030.

World leaders have called for far more investment in renewable energy to tackle climate change, with developing nations saying they need financial support to make the transition.

Speaking at a Global Renewables Summit, Kenyan President William Ruto argued for investing in renewables in Africa as part of the global pledge made at last year’s COP28 summit to triple clean energy capacity by 2030.

“Africa receives less than 50 per cent of global investment in renewable energy despite being home to 60 per cent of the world’s best solar opportunities,” Ruto told the summit, which is being held on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly

He said the continent is rich in resources needed for development but cannot always access those resources due to the current mix of “unreliable or expensive energy.”

Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley said that fossil fuel subsidies outnumber renewable energy subsidies, which makes it more expensive for small states to develop clean energy projects.

“Small states face the reality that the cost of renewable energy … will probably be higher than traditionally fossil fuels,” she said.

Recent reports, including one by the International Energy Agency, suggest that tripling the world’s renewable capacity is feasible within this decade. However, the effort will require robust regulation, including strong rules for issuing project permits and investments in building out transmission and battery storage.

Azerbaijan, hosting this year’s COP29 climate summit in November, said it was planning to rally governments to make a new global pledge to increase electricity storage sixfold.

Earlier in the day, Mission 2025, a coalition of some of the world’s biggest companies, finance houses, and cities, urged governments to adopt policies that could unleash up to $1 trillion in clean energy investments by 2030. These policies include setting new capacity targets and offering tax credits or long-term electricity contracts that would encourage investment.

Giving his final major speech on climate change at a forum attended by clean energy business leaders, U.S. President Joe Biden celebrated his $369 billion signature climate law.

“We were told it couldn’t get done, and we did it,” he said of passing the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022, adding that the legislation has since encouraged innovation and created hundreds of thousands of jobs.

“Private companies have announced investments of over $1 trillion in clean manufacturing,” he told the event. “We are just getting started.”