COP28: 118 countries agree to triple renewable energy by 2030

Pledge led by EU, US and UAE says this will cut fossil fuels from world’s system by 2050

DUBAI More than 100 governments pledged to triple the world's renewable energy capacity by 2030 at the United Nations' COP28 climate summit on Dec 2, as a route to cut the share of fossil fuels in the world's energy production.

The pledge was among a slew of COP28 announcements on the same day aimed at decarbonising the energy sector source of around three-quarters of global greenhouse gas emissions that included expanding nuclear power, cutting methane emissions, and choking off private finance for coal power.

"This can and will help transition the world away from unabated coal," said Dr Sultan al-Jaber, the United Arab Emirates' COP28 summit president.

Led by the European Union, United States and UAE, the pledge also said tripling renewable energy would help remove carbon dioxide (CO2)-emitting fossil fuels from the world's energy system by 2050 at the latest.

The 118 backers on Dec 2 included Brazil, Nigeria, Australia, Japan, Canada, Chile and Barbados.

While China and India have signalled support for tripling renewable energy by 2030, neither backed the overall pledge on Dec 2 - which pairs the ramp-up in clean power with a reduction in fossil fuel use.

Backers including the EU and UAE want the renewable energy pledge included in the final UN climate summit decision, to make it a global goal. That would require consensus among the nearly 200 countries present.

The pledge, a draft of which was first reported by Reuters in November, also called for "the phasedown of unabated coal power" and an end to the financing of new coal-fired power plants. It also included a target to double the global rate of energy efficiency by 2030.