COP28’s staggeringly ambitious new pledge shows the world’s energy tastes are changing fast
For decades, America kept a pretty low profile at these climate summits.
Oil and coal wealth made it a global superpower. Talk of clean energy was political and economic kryptonite.
But here at COP28 we just witnessed US Vice President Kamala Harris announce that more than 100 countries have signed up to a pledge brokered by the US, the EU and COP hosts, the United Arab Emirates, to triple renewable energy production and double energy efficiency by 2030.
It’s staggeringly ambitious. Only around 11% of global energy comes from renewable energy (excluding nuclear and biomass energy) right now.
And 2030 is just six years away.
But renewables have been expanding more cheaply and quickly than anyone predicted.
Just 100 km from the summit, the newly-opened Al Dhafra solar plant claims the title of the largest single-site solar farm in the world. Its 4million solar panels were bolted together in just 10 months.
China is building out new solar and wind capacity so fast its fossil fuel emissions are predicted to peak next year – even though demand in the country is expected to keep growing.
Increasing renewables will also displace fossil fuels and their planet warming side effects like methane production.
Electric heat pumps and cars are also significantly more efficient than fossil fuel powered ones, reducing overall energy demand.
If everyone signed up to the pledge if would deliver nearly three quarters of the emissions cuts needed to put the world on a path to 1.5 degrees.
Although not everyone has – including some of the biggest polluters of the lot.
India whose growth plans are still inextricably linked to coal is a notable absence as is Indonesia, South Africa and Turkey.
China hasn’t signed up either, but it could be on course to meet the pledge given the pace of its renewable ambition.
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And pledges are just that. None is binding unless it makes it into the final text agreed at the end of this sprawling summit.
But even if it isn’t agreed by the 197 nations assembled here, it’s still significant. The world’s energy tastes are changing fast.