Deputy Director General of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) Gauri Singh said that although the world reached a new high level in the cost of investment in renewable energy last year, this has positively reflected on the amount of renewable energy that has been installed on the ground, this is unfortunately “not enough” to achieve the goals of the Paris climate agreement.
She added that the cost of this investment does not put us on track to achieve the one and a half degrees Celsius target we are aiming for.
And she continued: “I think that some countries that have announced their goals should take the necessary next steps in terms of legislative policy and licensing deals so that they can oversee the implementation of the necessary projects on the ground.”
She mentioned that from our side in IRENA, we estimate that 3,000 gigawatts of renewable energy have been added to the world, but this number needs to be tripled to reach 10,700 gigawatts, which is not easy, as it requires the construction of flexible electrical networks, which we forget about it sometimes.
“Construction and investment in infrastructure is just as important. Just as we must focus our efforts on adding renewable energy to the earth, we must also build and invest in infrastructure at the same time to make room for these additions and this transformation,” Singh. said.
She explained that we are seeing an increase in interest rates and this requires further promotion of climate finance in order for the necessary investments to reach the renewable energy and energy efficiency sectors, but we must not forget that the energy transition process will be very complex and it will not be a smooth process. .
She stated that we will face challenges and fluctuations and we need to be prepared for and manage these challenges, so we are expected to face challenges in raising the necessary climate finance and in providing the necessary investment in networks and increasing their sustainability.
“We must find the necessary tools and channels to channel this liquidity to the sites that need it, and I believe that this point will be the biggest challenge in the discussions of the upcoming climate summits, as we need to know how to provide these channels to deliver funds to emerging and developing countries and integrate them into the transformation process,” said Singh.
She said that when we talk about the direction of investment, we mean that we still see a gap in the amount of funds that we will need to achieve the desired goals by the end of this decade.
“We need to double the value of renewable energy investments, and the problem in this regard is not technology. The necessary technologies are available today and the challenge is to deliver investment to projects in countries that are ready in terms of their policies to move forward in creating more renewable energy opportunities in their electrical grids,” Singh said.
And she continued, “This challenge will be one of the most notable files that we hope to not only discuss at COP28, but find solutions for it to move forward.”
