Search Results

Dramatic reductions in the cost of renewable energy and rapid innovations in smart grids, storage, and connectivity are driving large scale clean energy investments, especially in developing countries. The Paris Agreement on climate change is providing further impetus to scale up renewable energy, as countries are implementing policies to deliver on commitments. But despite these efforts, challenges still remain that could hold back investment and the transition to a low carbon future.

Achieving “affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all” demands increased amounts of renewable energy. But the scale-up of renewable energy is not happening fast enough. Consumers are being locked into other potentially more expensive investments and climate change targets will be missed.

There is approximately 2,000 GW of coal-based generation capacity remaining worldwide, despite widespread recognition of coal’s strong negative impact on climate change. While a phase-out of coal is occurring, the process is slow given the scale of the challenge and limited economic alternatives. For developing countries, coal mine retirement bears significant social, economic, and political challenges. The transition requires a programmatic, multi-decade approach that is multi-faceted in nature across jobs, skill sets, environmental issues, and finance.

Developing regional transition strategies, strengthening local and regional institutions, and building the capacity to implement large social protection, education, and economic innovation programs, along with the implementation of kick-start projects are key to successful and just coal phase-out plans. Yet, many countries lack the capacity and funds to actualize these initiatives, leaving many governments frustrated by the inability to demonstrate real progress in the coal sector transition.

Even though geothermal energy has been utilized directly for centuries, currently, it is mainly used in balneology and heating applications in China, North America, and Northern Europe.  At the end of 2019, it was estimated that installed thermal power capacity for direct utilization was a modest 110 GWt.  Geothermal energy has gained growing recognition for its potential to provide clean and reliable heat energy to support industrial decarbonization.

Innovative financing is required to reach the most vulnerable and disadvantaged segments of society. Often, we observe that existing market incentives, without more targeted interventions are insufficient for the private sector to extend solutions to segments of the population that are considered high risk or are otherwise not a top priority due to location. It is then important to create the right incentives and implementation tools to help deliver electricity services and address affordability constraints for end-users.