Key findings

The growth in renewable energy hides serious inequalities across the world and income groups

No country meets the criteria to qualify as Champion. Among the Frontrunners, China, Brazil, Vietnam and Jordan are outperforming many high-income countries.

Many rich countries are failing to deliver renewable energy at the scale needed, including South Korea, Russia, Canada, Japan, Saudi Arabia, New Zealand, Italy and the United Arab Emirates.

Due to the lack of international support and access to technology, many Sub-Saharan African and South-East Asia countries are unable to fully benefit from renewables, e.g. in terms of job creation, prosperity and gender equality.

The benefits and challenges of deploying renewable energy needs better monitoring

The renewable energy industry must adopt a rights-based approach throughout the entire renewable energy supply chain, from the extraction of minerals through to the consent and participation of local communities where renewable projects are being deployed, to the way in which workers are treated.

The environmental challenges of renewables need better monitoring. Available data indicates that too many countries still rely on firewood – not just across Africa, but also in Nordic European countries, Asia and some Latin American countries.

Without a significant shift in investment and finance, access to renewable energy will remain highly unequal

Renewable energy technologies have the potential to close these gaps, but this requires a more equal distribution of investments, which is not foreseen by the analysis.

Many barriers prevent developing countries from having renewable energies, including high cost of capital, Multilateral Banks prioritizing fossil fuels, and foreign debt.

Developed countries are not providing the finance needed by other – often poorer – countries. Developed countries should support developing countries through primarily grant-based public finance.

Advancing faster and further the just and equitable transition

Countries need to adopt ambitious renewable energy targets in NDCs: many countries will have to go beyond tripling renewables by 2030 to phase out fossil fuel and/or ensure a sufficient access to reliable energy for households and beyond.

Social policies and measures must be adopted to ensure benefit-sharing with local communities, community ownership, decent employment opportunities and socio-economic development, while giving a particular attention to rural communities, women and poorer households.

Policies and mechanisms to protect forests, land, water and resource rights and minimize the impact of renewable energy projects must be established and enforced.

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