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Distinguished guests, good morning, afternoon, and evening. Let’s take a moment today to celebrate the great progress made to advance renewable energies that are accelerating the clean energy transition.
[tweetquote:[tweetText=Over the past decade, renewable energy and battery storage innovations have expanded and improved access to electricity,tweetData=WBG_Energy,tweetHash=]], connecting millions of poor and remote households.
At the same time, new technologies like offshore wind, blue and green hydrogen, as well as carbon capture and storage are promising new decarbonization opportunities that can drive the sustainable energy access for all.
While these innovations are promising, [tweetquote:[tweetText=much more needs to be done to radically transform the way we produce and consume energy to drastically reduce emissions while at the same time meeting developing countries’ growing energy demand.,tweetData=WBG_Energy,tweetHash=]]
So how do we meet this growing demand for energy access, while cutting down on emissions? The answer is a swift, well-managed retirement of coal and other high-emissions power plants and a massive scale up in renewable energy and energy efficiency.
[tweetquote:[tweetText=The energy transition requires an immediate focus on deploying existing low-cost technologies in the power sector that power transportation, buildings, and industry with clean electricity. Solar and wind energy must increase to 4 times the record set in 2020 to replace fossil-fuel based energy, to achieve universal access to energy, and to meet growing demand for electricity.,tweetData=WBG_Energy,tweetHash=]] And this must be done in a way that is Just for All, protecting the livelihoods of communities that face the costs of transition away from coal.
So how do we get there? We need three key ingredients: clear political commitment to energy transition targets, supportive policy frameworks, and financing.
Governments need to establish energy transition targets with credible implementation plans and halt further investments in new coal-fired power plants, while retiring or repurposing coal assets.
[tweetquote:[tweetText=Scaling up the deployment of renewable energy requires a scaling up of financing commensurate to the size of the challenge.,tweetData=WBG_Energy,tweetHash=]] Global investment must rise from an average of US$ 1 trillion annually over the last five years to an average of US$ 1.75 trillion annually and then double that towards the end of the decade. US$ 35 billion must be mobilized for electricity access and US$ 25 billion for clean cooking annually.
The World Bank Group (WBG) is working hand in hand with countries to accelerate this energy transition. We are supporting investments in energy efficiency, renewable energy and both grid and off-grid energy access with data-driven planning, project preparation, institutional strengthening, improvement of utility performance and energy subsidy reforms. We are also scaling up our investments in clean cooking. [tweetquote:[tweetText=The World Bank committed US$8.4 billion in clean energy investments including renewable energy access in the last five years.,tweetData=WBG_Energy,tweetHash=]]
Developing countries require an unprecedented volume of financing to transform their energy sectors at an unprecedented speed and scale in the coming decades.
The World Bank Group will do its share, catalyzing change at scale to achieve ambitions and joining forces with development partners to achieve impact by mobilizing and deploying capital commensurate with the challenge.
The Compact the World Bank presents to the UN commits support to providing 100 million people with access to clean cooking and up to 60 million people with access to electricity between now and 2025.
Thank you.