Renewable power reaches record 30% of global electricity
Experts have hailed a “critical turning point” as renewable power generated a record-breaking 30% of the world’s electricity last year, new data has found.
It raises hopes that the peaking of global greenhouse gas emissions is on the horizon.
But there are concerns many countries are being held up in their switch to clean power because they cannot access the cash needed to fund it.
Last year’s renewable power “milestone” was driven by yet another booming year for wind and especially solar.
China, Brazil and the Netherlands led the way in terms of fast roll-outs, thinktank Ember said in its annual Global Electricity Review.
China alone accounted for 51% of new solar generation and 60% of new wind, even as it continued to build vast amounts of new coal power too.
Christiana Figueres, former United Nations climate chief, called 2023 a “critical turning point”.
She said “outdated” fossil fuels now can’t compete with the “exponential innovations and declining cost curves in renewable energy and storage”.
“All of humanity and the planet upon which we depend will be better off for it,” she added.
In the last two decades, solar and wind have defied expectations and grown far faster than expected, surging from just 0.2% of global power generation in 2000 to 13.4% in 2023.
Dave Jones, Ember’s head of global insights, said the huge growth was due to “matured” policies and technologies and a plummet in costs.
The cost of solar power halved last year despite a surge in demand, thanks to an explosion in manufacturing capacity.
Meanwhile problems that had held up wind power – such as inflationary costs – began to resolve, unlocking more projects.
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China ramps up coal power despite pledge to control it
A ‘genuinely ambitious’ renewables target
At the COP28 climate summit in Dubai last year leaders pledged to triple renewable power capacity by 2030.
The “genuinely ambitious” target shows leaders are backing renewables, which are the “main tools that we have in the box today to deliver the big emissions reductions we need”, rather than riskier technology, such as that to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, Mr Jones said.
Ember suggests the global burning of fossil fuels in the power sector probably peaked in 2023 and will start to fall this year, along with the pollution and emissions they bring.
As the power sector accounts for the largest share of global emissions, that means global emissions could start to fall soon too.
That is good news for curbing climate change, although scientists have repeatedly warned that emissions are not falling fast enough to limit global warming to agreed safer levels.
Mr Jones said the pace of emissions falls “depends on how fast the renewables revolution continues”.
Joab Okanda, a senior adviser for Christian Aid, based in Kenya, said the roll-out would be “so much faster with the right investment” in African nations, which often face much higher borrowing costs than other countries.
Hanan Morsy, deputy executive secretary and chief economist at the UN’s Economic Commission for Africa, said the continent holds “big potential in renewable energy”.
“Yet a dismally small share of less than 2% of global renewable energy investments are made on the continent. The continent can’t develop further without access to energy.”
He called for financial reforms to bring in affordable and new types of funding.
Financing the clean transition in developing nations, which have typically contributed the least to climate change, will be a key issue at this year’s UN climate summit, COP29 in Azerbaijan.
The UK lacks a national plan to defend itself from attack and is moving at a “glacial” pace to fix the problem despite threats from Russia and China, a report by MPs has warned.
With the whole country needing to understand what it means to be ready for war, the Defence Select Committee also said it had seen no sign of a promised “national conversation on defence and security” that was launched by Sir Keir Starmer in June.
Sky News and other journalists were even blocked on Monday from interviewing sailors aboard HMS Prince of Wales, the Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, in direct contrast to the prime minister’s stated aim of greater engagement.
Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales. File pic: AP
Public needs to know ‘what to expect’ from war
“We have repeatedly heard concerns about the UK’s ability to defend itself from attack,” said Labour MP Tan Dhesi, chair of the committee.
“Government must be willing to grasp the nettle and prioritise homeland defence and resilience.
“In achieving this, government cannot shy away from direct engagement with the public.
“Wars aren’t won just by generals, but by the whole of the population getting behind the Armed Forces and playing our part.
“There needs to be a co-ordinated effort to communicate with the public on the level of threat we face and what to expect in the event of conflict.”
The Royal Navy tracked a Russian submarine in UK waters last month. Pic: Royal Navy/MOD
‘The Wargame’ made real?
The findings of the report support a podcast series by Sky News and Tortoise Media called The Wargame – released in June.
It simulated a Russian attack on the UK and played out what the impact might be for the country in the absence of a credible, resourced and rehearsed national defence plan – something Britain maintained rigorously during the Cold War.
Sky News first revealed in April 2024 that the previous government no longer had such a plan, though work was under way to develop one.
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Flagship aircraft carrier to be placed under NATO command
Report’s assessment of war-readiness
The Defence Select Committee report – based on a nearly year-long inquiry – found: “The UK lacks a plan for defending the homeland and overseas territories with little progress on the Home Defence Programme.”
It said this meant the government was failing to meet a fundamental commitment to the NATO alliance – the Article 3 requirement to maintain the “capacity to resist armed attack”.
The report quoted Luke Pollard, a defence minister, acknowledging that “we have been very clear that we are not satisfied with Article 3 in the UK”.
Britain’s new Ajax fighting vehicle, which arrived overdue and at great financial cost. Pic: PA
Read more: Is the Ajax any good?
Yet the MPs’ report added: “Despite this recognition from government… measures to remediate seem to be moving at a glacial pace.”
It said: “Cross-government working on homeland defence and resilience is nowhere near where it needs to be. The government has said repeatedly that we are in an era of new threat, yet decision-making is slow and opaque.”
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The rebuke from the MPs was published as John Healey, the defence secretary, prepares to announce that 13 sites across the UK have been identified as possible locations for at least six new weapons factories.
“This is a new era of threat,” he will say at a speech in Westminster later.
“We are making defence an engine for growth, unambiguously backing British jobs and British skills as we make the UK better ready to fight and better able to deter future conflicts.
“This is the path that delivers national and economic security.”
Industry will be invited to submit proposals to produce ammunition and explosives, with the Ministry of Defence saying it hopes work on the first factory will begin next year.
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