Insights from New York Climate Week
Fresh from an exciting and thought-provoking New York Climate Week, our team is energised with valuable insights to drive climate action forward. It was a pleasure meeting many of you.
Looking ahead to COP29 – the finance COP – we’re more determined than ever to close the $5 trillion investment gap required by 2030 to stay on track for net zero.
We look forward to collaborating on meaningful climate solutions!
Our partner the European Climate Foundation (ECF), is supporting a network of organisations across Europe that advocate for and help build the conditions for local communities to develop their own renewable energy projects.
Community energy projects are giving citizens independence and control over their energy bills, while also forming strong ties in the community. The model is popular because it democratises the energy system and ensures that the benefits of the clean energy transition are felt locally, while enabling collective action against climate change.
Demand for localised energy is growing, with over 3,000 energy cooperatives now operating across Europe. Read more about ECF’s work on supporting this movement here.
By the end of 2023, China’s household distributed photovoltaic (DPV) capacity surpassed 100 GW, accounting for 25% of the nation’s photovoltaic generation. However, further growth faces challenges due to limited household consumption and grid bottlenecks.
Our partner, Energy Foundation China supported an innovative solution launched by Shandong Jianzhu University to expand DPV capacity in China: The project focuses on “rural power banks,” which are decentralised energy storage systems integrated into the power distribution network. In pilot projects in Shandong’s Hanjiayu and Yicheng villages, 120-kilowatt modular distributed energy storage systems were installed, increasing the local grid’s capacity by 30% and generating an additional $7,000 in annual electricity revenue for the local community.
Looking ahead, large-scale deployment of decentralised energy storage could accelerate sustainable DPV development, enhancing efficient energy use and delivering financial benefits to rural communities across China.
Watch our partners, the African Climate Foundation and Tara Climate Foundation, in the We Don’t Have Time livestream, discussing how ReNew2030 drives the 3x renewables target through new models of investment, development projects, and grassroots initiatives.
“Right now, there are so many barriers to renewable energy deployment around the world – the work we are doing is about removing policy and technical barriers, with the hope that it will lead to Gigawatt-scale deployment. What’s really exciting about ReNew2030 is that we’re doing this together” – Jamie Choi, CEO, Tara Climate Foundation
“We used to work in very fragmented ways, but now we can work with a more unified approach, taking a global perspective, with a strong local perspective – that’s the power of ReNew2030, we’ve never done that before.” – Saliem Fakir, Executive Director, African Climate Foundation
ReNew2030 is proud to have partnered with the Global Renewables Alliance (GRA) to host the first-ever Global Renewables Summit! For the first time, all stakeholders came together to discuss how to accelerate the global race to x3 renewable energy capacity – bringing together governments, the private sector, philanthropies, international organisations, and academia. Rebecca Collyer, Executive Director of ReNew2030 shared insights on strengthening resilient and diverse supply chains for renewable energy, especially on how a clean energy economy must go hand-in-hand with creating high-quality jobs:
“Renewable energy jobs make up a fast-growing segment, philanthropy is committed to working with the industry on creating the next generation of skills and talents.” – Rebecca Collyer, Executive Director of ReNew2030
At the speeding up grid deployment and renewables integration event, Deborah Ramalope, Director of ReNew2030, engaged with partners, including Green Grids Initiative and Planning for Climate Coalition, on the critical challenge of expanding grid capacity.
“Setting a global grid target will create a unified global vision, unlock cross-border electricity networks, and send a signal to the markets.” – Deborah Ramalope, Director of ReNew2030
ReNew2030’s opinion piece in the Financial Times’ Sustainable Views, highlighted the power of philanthropy in unlocking renewable energy projects, with a spotlight on the Renewables Investment Platform for Limitless Energy(RIPLE) initiative.
This $500 million initiative, if successfully implemented, could inspire funding mechanisms that may be adaptable in other regions.
ReNew2030 at COP29: Join ReNew2030 at the Regional Climate Foundations Pavilion, where we will be hosting an event to highlight the remarkable achievements from our partners and local strategies on community engagement to prevent backlash and misinformation, with insights from Mexico, China, and Europe. Nigeria’s Renewables Investment Platform (RIPLE) will showcase how to unlock finance for renewable projects.
