The Story:
The International Energy Agency (IEA) reported that 2020 saw the world’s renewable energy grow at the fastest rate since 1999, despite the disruption caused by Covid-19. The IEA announced that wind power capacity doubled over the last year. Solar power grew by almost 50 percent more than its growth the year before due to the higher demand for clean energy from corporations and governments.
The IEA are calling on governments to back this encouraging momentum by introducing legislation and policies that encourage ESG investing in key renewables such as solar and wind and other growing renewables such as hydropower, bioenergy, and geothermal technologies.
China is the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases, but it has accounted for more than 40 percent of the global growth in renewable energy for the past few years. It is also one of the largest suppliers of the raw materials needed to make renewable energy projects.
The growth of the offshore wind industry in the UK is forecast to account for 25 percent of the world’s offshore wind capacity by next year, breaking records as the only country in the world to have more wind power generated off its coast than on its land.
Higginson says:
This report shows that it is possible to bring our emissions down to net-zero by championing governments and corporations to help them understand the advantages that renewable energy brings. The massive increase in renewable power shows we can switch to renewable sources, and this can be done quickly to help our planet recover from the effects of the fossil fuel industry.