New Report: Renewables Global Status Report

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Find Summary article - 5 key takeaways (with figures/graphs from the report)

Report shows an alarming gap between targets and actions with fifteen G20 countries lacking a 2020 renewable energy target covering all sectors. REN21 calls for all economic activities to incorporate a key performance indicator to close this gap. 

Released on 15 June, the Renewables 2021 Global Status Report compiles developments from the past year on the market, policy and technology trends in renewable energy. 

The report’s findings are truly global as they are crowdsourced from hundreds of contributors from industry, NGOs, governments and academia from around the world. Additionally, the chapters go through two rounds of public peer review, leading to the hundreds of acknowledged contributors in the report’s first pages. The robust process of producing the GSR means the findings are deeply relevant for the world.

Make renewables a key performance indicator in all economic activities New global renewables report shows alarming gap between targets and actions

• Fifteen G20 countries lack a 2020 target for renewable energy covering all sectors

• Fossil fuel share in energy consumption has not decreased for 10th consecutive year

• Renewable electricity outcompetes existing coal

2020 could have been a gamechanger. Economies worldwide were ravaged by the COVID-19 pandemic. Primary energy demand fell by 4%. But even with this historic decline, G20 countries, the planet’s biggest polluters, barely met or even missed their unambitious renewable energy targets. But the benefits of renewables in terms of health, climate and job creation are indisputable. REN21’s Renewables 2021 Global Status Report published today shows that we are nowhere near the necessary paradigm shift towards a clean, healthier and more equitable energy future.

The share of fossil fuels in the total energy mix is as high as a decade ago (80.3% vs. 80.2% today) and the renewable energy share only increased slightly. Even with the historic decline in energy consumption last year, the five G20 countries with 2020 renewable energy targets struggled toward their goals. The other 15 did not even have one.1 “We are waking up to the bitter reality that the climate policy promises over the past ten years have mostly been empty words. The share of fossil fuels in final energy consumption has not moved by an inch,” says Rana Adib, REN21’s Executive Director. “Phasing them out and making renewables the new norm are the strongest actions we can take.” Shifting to renewable energy is not only necessary and possible, but it also makes business sense Fossil fuels are responsible for climate change, and also heavily contribute to biodiversity loss and pollution.

Shifting from fossil fuels to renewable energy is a necessary step to take and making renewables the norm is not a question of technology or costs. The power sector has made great progress already. Today, almost all new power capacity is renewable.2 More than 256 GW were added globally in 2020 – surpassing the previous record by nearly 30%. In more and more regions, including parts of China, the EU, India and the United States, it is now cheaper to build new wind or solar PV plants than to operate existing coal-fired power plants. This progress could and should be replicated in all other sectors.

Read the complete press release here: ·  Press release