Urgent responsibility was the overriding theme of the 15th annual meeting of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), which convened in Abu Dhabi on January 12.
Keynote speakers at this year’s IRENA meeting in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) called for a fairer distribution of financial resources to help the global South overcome energy-related challenges causing widespread inequality.
‘Accelerating the transition to renewable energy – the way forward’ was the theme of this year’s IRENA meeting, which took place on January 12 in Abu Dhabi. The agency’s director general Francesco La Camera said it had been carefully chosen to respond to the events of the past year. The tone of the day was to remind stakeholders of their collective responsibility, both for the international binding targets and for making the transition to clean energy fairer and faster.
War, multiple elections around the world and escalating climate disasters require urgent action from energy stakeholders – and the current lackluster response to all of the above is not sustainable, La Camera said in his opening statement.
“The events of the past year have further underlined the critical importance of energy security. Geopolitical tensions, volatile forces and markets have increased the need for resilient and sustainable energy systems.”
According to La Camera, 2024 was the first year in which IRENA carried out its mandate to monitor progress in implementing the UAE Consensus global pledge to triple renewable energy generation and double energy efficiency by 2030.
IRENA has also worked closely with the COP 28 and 29 teams to achieve climate action goals. The fifteenth edition of the annual meeting saw a record number of participants of 1,480 yesterday, he said.
But the current pace of response to the green transition is not sustainable, he warned. “The energy transition cannot be seen as merely a response to a crisis, but as an active strategy” to limit global emissions to 1.5 degrees Celsius, as set out in the Paris Agreement.
To help reduce further emissions, IRENA is facilitating financing through two initiatives. These are the Energy Transition Accelerator Financing Platform (ETAF) and the Climate Investment Platform (CIP). An estimated $150 trillion will be needed by 2050 to maintain the 1.5 degree scenario.
As of December 2024, ETAF has supported 83 projects, representing 6.2 GW of potential installed renewable energy capacity. These include three large-scale solar projects in Uzbekistan with a total capacity of 897 MW.
“The theme of this meeting is not only a call for acceleration, but also reminds us of our collective responsibility,” said La Camera. “The transition to renewable energy represents a unique convergence of economic opportunity, social justice and environmental stewardship. It is a transition that transcends borders and unites sectors.”
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterriez, speaking via video link, reiterated the need for action and urgency. “Governments must begin a just transition away from fossil fuels and towards clean energy in their new National Climate Action Plans (NDCs) due later this year. They must ensure that new coal is eliminated and commit to a total phase-out of coal, moving directly to renewable energy sources.”
Philemon Yang, President of the United Nations General Assembly, also spoke via video link on the topic of equitable financing. He said achieving the goals set out in the UAE consensus would require a significant financial commitment. “In fact, an estimated $31.5 trillion will be needed between now and 2030 to finance the expansion of renewable energy, green infrastructure, energy efficiency and savings costs.”
He said he was hopeful given indications from various multilateral fora, such as the new climate finance target recently agreed at COP 29 for $300 million per year to support developing countries.
But there is an impetus to build on the agreements made with concrete actions, he added. The financing dilemma is even more pronounced in countries that are in special situations where the energy gap hinders progress. Although global investment in renewable energy reached unprecedented levels in 2023, the distribution remains highly uneven.
“Half the world’s population, spread across more than 150 economies, received only 10% of total investments. 685 billion people still have no access to electricity and 2.1 billion people rely on polluting fuels for cooking. The majority of them come from Sub-Saharan Africa. These differences cannot continue to exist, because we know that limited social development promotes inequality and conflict.”
Multiple panels of speakers explored topics such as the need for greater social inclusivity and innovative funding streams for better networking technologies. A refrain repeated by several speakers throughout the day was: “There is no transition without transmission.”
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