IRENA: Investment in renewable energy must increase fourfold

Annual global investment in technologies enabling the energy transition must more than quadruple to meet the commitments of the Paris climate agreement. The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) said this. This year, investment in renewable energy technologies reached a record $1.3 trillion (28.3 trillion Kč).

To achieve the 2015 Paris climate agreement goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius compared with the pre-industrial era, this amount must rise to approximately $5 trillion a year, the international agency said. Overall, it said, $35 trillion needs to be invested in energy transition technologies by 2030.

Annual deployment of renewable energy must increase from around 3,000 gigawatts (GW) today to more than 10,000 GW in 2030, IRENA said. It added that the expansion of renewables should be balanced between industrialized and developing countries.

Last year, new renewable energy projects in China, the European Union and the United States accounted for two-thirds of installed capacity. Africa accounted for just one percent.