On climate and energy
1. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, a record 260 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity was added globally in 2020, beating the previous record by almost 50 per cent.
2. Renewables grew almost 5 per cent per year between 2009 and 2019, outpacing fossil fuels at 1.7 per cent.
3. Although most new renewable energy capacity installations have been made in developing countries in the last two years, developed countries had around four times more capacity per capita than developing countries in 2019.
4. In 2018, the share of renewable energy in total energy consumption amounted to 17.1 per cent, with the largest increase in the share of renewables for electricity. The transport and heating sectors show much slower or no progress.
5. More than 80 per cent of all new electricity capacity added in 2020 was renewable with solar and wind accounting for 91 per cent. Investment in offshore wind hit its highest level ever at $29.9 billion.
6. In 2018, international public financial flows to developing countries in support of clean energy amounted to $14 billion, a 35 per cent decrease from an all-time high of $21.9 billion in 2017.
7. To limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C in line with the Paris Agreement, energy transition investment will have to increase by 30 per cent for a total of $131 trillion by 2050, yet will yield a cumulative payback of at least $61 trillion by 2050.
8. Global investment in renewable power capacity totalled $303.5 billion in 2020, a 2 per cent increase from 2019. But to reach global climate goals, annual investment in renewables must at least triple by 2030, for a total increase of 200 per cent.
9. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, global energy use fell by 4 per cent in 2020, and carbon dioxide emissions declined by almost 6 per cent in 2020. But emissions have returned to their upwards trajectory and in December 2020 were about 2 per cent higher than in 2019, before the pandemic.
10. More than half of the renewable capacity added in 2019 achieved lower electricity costs than new coal. New solar and wind projects are undercutting the cheapest existing coal-fired plants. Solar photovoltaics showed the sharpest cost decline over 2010-2019 at 82 per cent, followed by concentrated solar power at 47 per cent.
Sources: IRENA (1), REN21 (2, 8), IEA and others (3, 4, 6), IRENA (5), IRENA (7), IEA (9), IRENA (10)