2023-11-21 03:00:03
Photovoltaic panels at the Al-Dhafra solar power plant, in the United Arab Emirates, November 13, 2023. KARIM SAHIB / AFP
The president of the 28th global climate conference (COP28), Sultan Al-Jaber, is known to be the head of the Emirati oil company. He is also the founder and chairman of Masdar, the national renewable energy company. On November 16, the United Arab Emirates inaugurated one of the largest solar power plants in the world, partly owned by Masdar and located in the middle of the desert in Al-Dhafra. Four million photovoltaic panels, covering more than 20 square kilometers, will be able to produce 2 gigawatts (GW) of electricity and power 160,000 homes.
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Strongly criticized for his role as a hydrocarbon producer, Sultan Al-Jaber intends in particular to focus on renewables to make COP28, which will be held from November 30 to December 12 in Dubai, a diplomatic success. In his letter to the parties sent in mid-October, it calls for tripling global renewable energy capacity by 2030, among other measures of an “energy package”.
This objective, also supported by the European Union and the United States, corresponds to what the International Energy Agency (IEA) calls for: during its presentation, in 2021, of the first sheet of road aimed at decarbonizing the energy system, it presented the tripling of renewables as “the most important single lever” to achieve emissions reduction targets. Solar and wind would represent the vast majority of this deployment.
Recent acceleration
A report from the environmental think tank Ember, published Tuesday, November 21, estimates that this tripling objective is within reach, provided that States increase their ambitions. The organization reviewed the national targets set by fifty-seven countries as well as that of the European Union, which collectively represent 93% of renewable capacities. According to these plans, governments currently plan to double capacity from 3,400 GW in 2022 to 7,300 GW in 2030.
But tripling, reaching around 11,000 GW, is not out of reach: the think tank underlines that many of the national objectives do not take into account the recent acceleration in the deployment of renewables. “A revolution is happening right now, but government targets are not reflecting it”estimates Katye Altieri, analyst at Ember.
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According to the IEA, 2023 should be a record year, with around 440 GW of installed capacity. The Ember report also points out that twelve states are expected to increase their capacities this year at a faster rate than that required to achieve their 2030 objective. In twenty-two other countries, the volume of wind and solar projects existing again exceeds what is necessary. To achieve tripling of capacities, however, ambitions will have to be further increased, even if certain countries, such as India, Saudi Arabia and now the United Arab Emirates, are already planning to increase their capacities by three – or even more. .
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