Pre-Paris plans can boost renewables
India and China’s plans alone will potentially double the current global capacity of wind and solar in the next fifteen years, while part of the US’ proposals will boost the country’s clean energy market share by almost 10 per cent, claims the report.
The plans, called Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs), commit governments to a major expansion of renewable power, with the participating countries representing 95 per cent of global emissions.
The analysis, entitled ‘Transformational INDCs: how new renewables pledges could transform the economics of wind and solar’, cites the fact that the falling price of renewable energy has coincided with an increase in renewable capacity, stating that costs have been driven down by factors including technological breakthroughs, economies of scale and reduced investment risk.
However the study emphasises that a positive agreement from the UN’s Climate Change Conference is needed for the INDCs to achieve their potential, while also claiming that current pledges are unlikely to limit global temperature rise to less than 2 degrees.
Richard Black (right), director of the ECIU, believes businesses and investors are ready to “unleash a wave of new investment in clean energy,” but are looking to negotiators in Paris to agree a new global climate deal.
“The report reinforces the view that increasingly, seeing climate change in terms what it will cost is nonsensical. As other analyses have shown, addressing climate risks effectively presents massive opportunities not just to maintain growth, but to have better growth,” he said.
“This report also shows how the deployment of climate solutions like renewable energy technologies is disrupting existing business models, particularly in energy. Businesses and governments that resist this transformation risk getting left behind.”
“This report clearly sets of the prize awaiting countries if they agree a new climate deal in Paris, and the missed opportunities if they fail,” said Richard Black. The implementation of many countries’ INDCs depends on a successful outcome in Paris, so there really is a massive amount at stake in these talks.”
The report also states that onshore wind, hydro, biomass and geothermal are all cost competitive with fossil fuels in many places, while claiming that the price of low-carbon nuclear has escalated over time.
