This report sets out to support governments in designing renewable energy targets that can help achieve these pressing objectives. The report presents an overview of the latest updates in climate commitments made ahead of COP27, focusing on the renewable energy targets in NDCs. The analysis illustrates the existing mismatch between renewable targets in NDCs and those set in national energy plans, after presenting the latest trends in targets and an analysis of the level of ambition in renewable power targets globally.

The summer of 2022 has given the world a glimpse of a future in which the fight against climate change has been lost. Temperatures are on the rise. July 2022 was the 46th consecutive July and the 451st consecutive month with temperatures exceeding the average for the 20th century (National Centers for Environmental Information, 2022). Heatwaves caused wildfires of unprecedented severity in Europe and the United States. Drought frequency and duration have increased by nearly a third since 2000 and water restrictions have been imposed in numerous jurisdictions, including in France, the United States and southwest China. Climate change is negatively affecting harvests and pushing up food prices globally, leaving 18 million people in Africa facing the risk of severe hunger (World Economic Forum, 2022). In Pakistan, which contributes less than 1% of annual global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, major climate-induced flooding left almost one-third of the country submerged, washing away half the country’s crops and causing significant food shortages (BBC News, 2022).

Commitments are being made outside the NDC process and beyond the 2030 time horizon. As of October 2022, 137 countries, 116 regions and 237 cities had made net zero commitments for 2050 as reported by the Net Zero Tracker. Private companies have also made such pledges. Almost 700 out of the 2 000 largest publicly traded companies globally have or are considering a net zero target. Together these 700 companies represent more than half of their cohort’s total annual revenue in 2020 (Net Zero Tracker, 2022). However, many of them have not backed up these targets with operational plans and strategies, leaving open the question of whether they would be realised (Energy Tracker Asia, 2022a)

Source: IRENA