G7 leaders have reiterated the importance of significantly increasing the pace and scale of deployment of renewable energy in a new communique.
They say the transition is needed for “the decarbonisation of our economies as effective means of enhancing our energy security through diversifying energy supply, reducing the dependency on fossil fuels, and achieving the goal of net zero by 2050 at the latest whilst driving economic growth and creating jobs”.
According to the document, the leaders say they recognise that the energy crisis has significantly accelerated investments in and deployment of renewable energy, driven by energy security concerns and climate ambition, as demonstrated by the IEA.
They said: “We will drastically increase electricity generated by renewable energies, as well as the use of renewables in heating, cooling and the transportation and industrial sectors promoting the active role of prosumers and citizens energy communities.
“We note with concern the findings of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) World Energy Transition Outlook 2023 that existing renewable power deployment rates globally are insufficient to keep 1.5°C within reach.”
The G7 said it contributes to expanding renewable energy globally and bringing down costs by strengthening capacity.
This includes through a collective increase in offshore wind capacity of 150GW by 2030 based on each country’s existing targets and a collective increase of solar PV to more than 1TW by 2030 estimated by the IEA and IRENA.
They added: “We will accelerate the deployment of renewable energies such as solar, onshore/offshore wind, hydropower, geothermal, sustainable biomass, biomethane, tidal using modern technologies, as well as investing in the development and deployment of next-generation technologies and developing secure, sustainable and resilient supply chains.
“Specifically, we will promote improvement in innovative technologies such as perovskite solar cells and floating offshore wind power, wave energy and in international standards of evaluation methods for introducing new technologies under international coordination.
“We will ask the IRENA to prepare analysis on innovation and sustainability of floating offshore wind. We will also steadily improve system flexibility including through grid reinforcement, stand-alone systems and mini-grids and modernized utilization of energy storage systems including battery storage, and demand side management.
“We welcome the IEA’s report focusing on the impacts of seasonal and annual variability of renewable energy and measures to respond, which should be recognized as significant progress in the deployment of renewable energy.”