Hundreds of governments, businesses and cities have today at COP21 made commitments to accelerate the transition to clean energy.
The initiatives were launched or presented during the Lima-Paris Action Agenda (LPAA) Focus on Energy today at the UN climate change conference in Paris.
They include:
- The Global Geothermal Alliance (GGA), which is a partnership of 36 countries and 23 institutions aiming to achieve a 500% increase in global installed capacity for geothermal power generation and a 200% increase for geothermal heating by 2030;
- the Africa Renewable Energy Initiative (AREI), which aims to build at least 10GW of new and additional renewable energy generation capacity by 2020 and 300GW by 2020;
- The Africa Clean Energy Corridor, which are regional platforms to accelerate deployment of renewable energy through economy of scale and optimization of resources.
Other initiatives include a Sustainable Energy Marketplace will officially be launched during the LPAA Focus. It is dedicated to facilitate and reduce the cost of transaction for renewable projects, starting with the African and the Latin-America platforms.
It will be a matchmaking platform giving renewable energy projects and investors a simple way to connect.
The marketplace is expected to house 100 projects by the beginning of 2016, and to mobilise billions in project financing over the next three years.
The event also highlighted the acceleration of existing initiatives, such as the Small Islands Developing States Lighthouses Initiative.
It also initiated energy efficiency programs and commitments.
The LPAA is a joint undertaking of the Peruvian and French COP presidencies, the Office of the Secretary-General of the UN and the UNFCCC Secretariat that aims to strengthen climate action during 2015.
Image: the Global Geothermal Alliance aims for a 500% increase in installed capacity (Ram Power)