EU, US, UAE Pressure Other Govts To Join Deal To Triple Renewable Energy

The United States, the European Union, and the United Arab Emirates are looking to drum up new recruits in the form of other governments to sign onto a global deal that seeks to triple renewable energy investment, according to new documents seen by Reuters.

The COP28 climate summit hosts are working with other governments to sign onto a pledge in the runup to the UN climate negotiations later this month in Dubai that would agree to triple renewable energy yet this decade. A launch event could take place at the beginning of the summit, a US State Department spokesperson told Reuters.

The deal would see 11,000 GW installed by 2030 in an effort to limit global warming to just 1.5 degrees Celsius, a draft letter sent to other governments and seen by Reuters said. The draft pledge would also double the world’s annual rate of improving energy efficiency to 4% per year until 2030.

“We have the solutions at hand and we have already made huge strides in expanding the global renewable energy capacity and becoming more energy efficient,” the letter said. The letter was signed by the United States, the International Energy Agency, the European Commission, the UAE Presidency of the COP28 summit, and the International Renewable Energy Agency, as well as Barbados, Kenya, Chile, and Micronesia.

 The draft still must garner unanimous approval from 200 nations represented in UN climate negotiations in order to be part of the formal outcome of the UN COP28 talks. But this unanimous approval will not be easily secured, with the draft clearly spelling out that this onslaught of renewables would need to be paired with “the phase down of unabated coal power” as well as stopping all financing for new coal-fired power plants.

By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com

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