This year was supposed to have opened the Decade of Action on sustainable development and climate change, with the transformation of the global energy system at its heart. While 2020 has thus far brought tragic loss of life and sudden economic uncertainty, it could yet turn out to be a crucial year and a turning point in these defining challenges of our time.
The first Global Renewables Outlook, released by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) in April 2020, showed how to transform the global energy system in line with the Paris Agreement, bringing immense socio-economic benefits and welfare gains. The advantages of renewables to weather the rising economic storm were already apparent.

A few months on, their resilience compared to the conventional energy industries based on fossil fuels has become even clearer. Now is the time to be strategic and ambitious, and to take the decisive step towards the structural shift needed to fulfil the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and keep global warming at 1.5°C degrees. The Post-COVID Recovery: An Agenda for Resilience, Development and Equality makes this connection clear. It points out how and where investments and policy measures focused on energy transitions can strengthen the economic recovery, bolster sustainable development, and set the course for a fully decarbonised system by the middle of this century.

Government policies and investment choices can create the self-perpetuating momentum to enact systemic change and deliver the energy transformation. The word “investment” is meaningful – these are not simply costs, but investments in our collective future and key enablers of economic growth, social resilience and welfare.

The agenda proposed here is achievable. The burden would not fall on public finances alone, particularly as technologies keep developing and costs fall further. Importantly, stimulus investments will result in rapid job creation. To support a sustained shift in local economies, industrial policies and targeted education and training programmes are needed to build tomorrow’s workforce and foster diverse segments of the value chain.

This report provides practical insights, options and recommendations for governments to consider. It can support informed policy-making as countries devise recovery measures specific to their circumstances. In suggesting how to navigate present times, it keeps a firm focus on the aims of inclusiveness and a just transition, while connecting short-term actions to medium- and long-term decarbonisation pathways.

The COVID-19 crisis has, in some ways, provided an unexpected foreshadowing of the mounting climate emergency. This is the right moment to reassess long-standing assumptions, perceived barriers, and default decisions. The pandemic has shown us how quickly all we are accustomed to can change. But it has also shown that collectively and with a common purpose, we are able to act decisively.