BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 8. World’s governments need to consider targeting more efforts in renewable energy deployment and implementing additional measures to leverage private investments in the sector, Trend reports via the Energy Progress Report 2022 from the International Energy Agency (IEA).
“For instance, renewables—including electricity, heat, biofuels, and biogas - accounted for just 11 percent of governments’ economic recovery spending on clean energy as of October 2021,” the report said.
According to the IEA, the global renewable electricity capacity even decreased in 2021, compared to 2020 - from 270 GW to 257 GW. Out of this, solar PV and onshore wind became the leading sources of renewable energy production. Meanwhile, the demand for biofuels in the transport sector increased and returned to the pre-COVID-19 pandemic level. Global modern renewable heat consumption also grew 5 percent year-on-year. “As total heat demand expanded by an estimated 3 percent over the same period, the share of modern renewable sources in heat supply rose by only 0.2 percentage points in 2021”.
Moreover, rising commodity and energy prices impacted the production and transporting of renewable energy sources, which poses risks for future projects. These higher prices create problems for small companies with limited financial resources, as well as for developers who have won competitive auctions, expecting a constant decline in equipment prices. However, higher prices for natural gas and coal have also contributed to the competitiveness of wind and solar photovoltaic systems, the IEA noted.
As recent global renewable energy developments still fall behind meeting the Paris Agreement and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a more strengthened policy is required.
“Renewables as a whole have been growing, but their compound annual growth rate of just 8.7 percent since 2016 is significantly below the 12–15 percent increases through 2030 required by the net-zero scenarios and the qualitative SDG targets,” the report said.
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