At COP28, 124 countries have signed up to the “Global Renewables and Energy Efficiency Pledge”, with the headline commitment to “Commit to work together to triple the world’s installed renewable energy generation capacity to at least 11,000 GW by 2030, taking into consideration different starting points and national circumstances.” Signatories also commit to doubling energy efficiency and recognize the need to end the construction of unabated new coal power capacity.
This pledge has materialized as one of the flagship outcomes from COP28 and garnered significant media attention, given the implied acceleration of deployment realizing this pledge would entail.
However, it has also been widely misunderstood and misquoted.
This note explains the pledge, benchmarks the pledge in relation to the expected renewable power deployment forecasted by the Inevitable Policy Response, and analyzes how renewable deployment would have to be accelerated across key markets in order to achieve the global objective.