Renewable energy sources added more generation capacity than all other technologies combined in 2015, with significant investment coming from developing countries in particular, a new UN report has found.
The findings contrast with Malta’s own slow progress on renewables ahead of the 2020 target agreed with the European Commission, by when 10 per cent of Malta’s energy is expected to come from renewable sources, a goal currently considered unlikely.
The UN Environment Programme’s annual ‘Global trends in renewable energy investment’ report found a record total of €361 billion were invested in renewables across the globe last year.
In terms of generation capacity, 134GW of renewable power was added worldwide in the period under review, compared to 106GW in 2014 and 87GW in 2013. For the first time, renewables represented more than half the capacity of all technologies installed in 2015.
Last year was also notable as the first in which investment in renewables in developing countries outweighed that in developed economies.
The developing world, including China, India and Brazil, committed a total of €140 billion, up 19 per cent on 2014, while developed countries invested €116 billion, down eight per cent. Investment in Europe slipped 21 per cent, down to €44 billion.
New, clean technologies still accounted for about 10 per cent of world electricity last year, according to the report, but, nonetheless, prevented an estimated 1.5 gigatonnes of emissions.
Researchers also noted that policy support for renewables remained fickle, with the recent big fall in coal, oil and gas prices possibly tempting countries to keep relying on fossil-fuel capacity for longer.
According to statistics published by Eurostat last month, Malta still has one of the lowest percentages of energy usage from renewable sources in the EU, with just 4.7 per cent compared to the European average of 16 per cent.
A European Commission report last November concluded that the island was one of a number of countries unlikely to reach its 2020 targets. The Commission has not excluded infringement proceedings should this be the case.
Concerns have also been raised over the fact that Enemalta is currently not buying any renewable energy via the interconnector, even though doing so would help the country meet its targets. Nevertheless, Malta has registered significant progress since 2004, when only 0.1 per cent of its energy came from renewable sources.
National figures showed a spike in renewable energy from 1,731 megawatt hours generated in 2010 to 36,692 in 2013, of which 83.7 per cent was produced from photovoltaic cells.
The UN climate change conference in Paris last December, known as COP21, produced an unprecedented agreement among 195 countries to act for zero net emissions in the second half of the century.
According to the new UN report, however, the global emission trend remains worrying, as energy-related emissions are not forecast to peak until the late 2020s, at the earliest.