To meet global climate and sustainable development goals, investment in renewable energy must double by 2020 and more than triple by 2030, according to IRENA’s new report Unlocking Renewable Energy Investment: the role of risk mitigation and structured finance , which finds that reaching this level of investment is entirely possible.
It will require policymakers and public finance institutions to employ a portfolio of approaches that target different investment constraints facing private finance, which will make up the majority of new investment in renewables.
“Renewables lie at the heart of the global energy transformation, which offers an economically attractive answer to energy security, energy access and climate change,” said Adnan Z. Amin , IRENA Director-General. “Markets worldwide can respond to the economic realities of renewables today and attract large-scale investors into the renewables sector.”
“This new report demonstrates that scaling up renewable energy investment to the levels required is possible through policy and financial tools at hand today,” added Amin . “Governments and other stakeholders now have the tools to take the actions needed to meeting global climate and sustainable development goals.”
The report identifies five main action areas where policy makers and public finance institutions can address risks and barriers facing renewable energy projects: