World ‘way off track’ stopping climate catastrophe, rich nations urged to spend more on clean energy

The COP28 president-designate warned that the world is ‘playing catch-up’ against the ‘fast-approaching deadline’ of 2030 to limit rising temperatures

Developed countries have fallen short of their investment pledges and must do more to ensure ‘inclusive reform’ of the energy sector, he said

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Wind turbines and high voltage electricity transmission towers in Germany. Investments in renewables need to triple by 2030 if climate targets are to be met, experts have warned. Photo: Bloomberg

Published: 8:43am, 18 Jan 2023Updated: 8:46am, 18 Jan 2023

Climate disaster can still be averted if governments, the energy sector and multilateral lenders make significant investments in renewables to push the world’s transition away from hydrocarbons, according to policymakers and industry leaders.

Global investments in renewables are currently falling far short of the levels required to curtail carbon emissions and slow the pace of climate change, they warned, despite receiving a boost recently on the back of energy security concerns arising from the war in Ukraine.

Constraining average global temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels by 2030 would require three-fold growth in renewables, the experts said, and for the production of low-carbon hydrogen – the leading renewable candidate to replace oil, gas and coal in power generation – to more than double.

“We need to do all this in an accelerated time frame against a fast-approaching deadline,” said Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber, the United Arab Emirates’ industry minister and president-designate of the COP28 United Nations Climate Control Conference (UNCCC) that will be held later this year.

The UAE’s industry minister Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber (left) speaks to US special presidential climate envoy John Kerry at the Atlantic Council Global Energy Forum in Abu Dhabi on Saturday. Photo: AFP

At the current pace, the world was “playing catch-up” in its efforts to meet carbon emissions reduction goals agreed at the UNCCC in Paris in 2015, al-Jaber said.