Dear Editor,
FOR effective climate action, the world faces enormous challenges, but also has concomitant opportunities. It is estimated that meeting global clean energy goals will require $1 trillion in new investments per year by 2030 and a cumulative investment of about $30 trillion by 2050. These investments are required for rapid, immediate and sustained change in energy systems. The current solutions for creating a sustainable energy system are renewables and storage solutions, in which solar is likely to account for 60 per cent of the mix. Moving towards clean energy is also, fortunately, the path of opportunity.

From 1850 to about now, manmade actions injected 2.48 trillion tonnes of greenhouse gasses into the planet’s atmosphere. About 42 billion tonnes every year continue to be added. If the world is to limit temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius, we cannot exceed 314 billion tonnes of GHG emissions. At the current rate of energy usage mix, we would blow through in less than eight years. A two-degrees scenario gives us a 25-year window. This is the challenge.

Given the low baseline of today and the ambitious targets for the future, the world holds humongous market potential for clean energy solutions, especially in solar energy. Today, installed solar capacity stands at around 800 GW. International Solar Alliance (ISA) along with Bloomberg have estimated that even if the capacity were quadrupled to 3.2 TW cumulatively by 2030, it would not be a fast enough growth to put the world on a path to net-zero CO2 emissions by 2050.

Already, solar power has reached cost parity in many parts of the world and the International Solar Alliance (ISA) is working towards making solar power a political priority for nations and leaders across the world. Since its establishment in 2015, ISA is scaling up efforts to implement its existing pipeline for solar projects, share knowledge, and build capacity across the solar value chain. These efforts are especially focused in the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and Small Island Developing States (SIDS) so that they can act as a trigger for technology advancement and policy change, and also help in the creation of financial and human capacity.

Latin America & Carribean (LAC) has one of the most dynamic renewable energy markets with more than a quarter of its primary energy coming from renewables, twice the global average. The total installed solar capacity in the region is about 20 GW, and it is expected that 16.5 GW of PV capacity will be added across LAC in 2022. Countries in the region are working to create more enabling policy and regulatory environments, which has resulted in cutting-edge concentrated-solar generation. For example, Chile is poised to replace fossil power with solar-thermal, which has positioned it as an energy exporter. Guyana receives some of the best solar insolation, with an average of 12 hours of daylight, all year round. Its plans and investments in solar-powered street-lights, solar farms and agricultural equipments will be transformative.

Despite COVID-19, and the consequent supply chain challenges, the solar sector saw nearly 191 GW of new capacity additions, driven to a large extent by policies, laws, and regulations that encourage investments in the sector. Yet, there hasn’t been a uniform deployment of solar technologies across the world. Countries and regions with high technical potential for the adoption of renewable energy have not led in the race of renewable adoption. In many parts of the world, solar energy projects have been inhibited by lack of affordable financing options, which is locking out market potential. There is an urgent need to de-risk these markets for solar energy deployment so that financing costs could be lowered, and investments could flow in. In all of ISA’s activities, risk reduction is the unifying theme: whether it is for reduction of risk to investors or reduction in policy risk due to new policies, or to users due to vulnerabilities of international fuel prices and to climate impacts. The focus is to have innovative financial and risk mitigation instruments to cover residual risks perceived by investors and enable a pipeline of bankable projects.

With the changing geopolitical scenario affecting the climate conversation, the impact on solar capacity addition needs to be safeguarded. In addition to the existing challenges of inadequate grid capacity, lack of creditworthy power off-takers, time-consuming permits and approvals, and difficulty in accessing low-cost funds, the new vulnerabilities may exacerbate the climate change challenges. Concerted and renewed efforts will be needed along with investments in the deployment of solar power projects to achieve energy security and decarbonisation.

To get back to where we started – the challenge and the opportunity: global GDP from $84.7 trillion in 2020 has to grow to a forecasted $205 trillion in 2050, while rapidly cutting the consumption of fossil fuel to 1970 levels, when the global GDP was $18 trillion. Investors from over 450 firms globally committed to deploying $130 trillion to build the economy of tomorrow, over 500 entities have signed the Carbon Neutral Now pledge.

The regional committee of the Latin American and Caribbean countries of the International Solar Alliance has the opportunity to step up efforts to ensure the people have access to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment. The region, including Andean peaks, mighty river basins and low-lying islands, has been experiencing extreme hydro-meteorological. The intensity of hurricanes have increased, plus drought and unusual fire season have led to agricultural losses and displacement. Half of the region is covered by forests, which represents about 57 per cent of the world’s remaining primary forests. It stores an estimated 104 gigatons of carbon. Fires and deforestation are now threatening one of the world’s largest carbon sinks, with far-reaching and long-lasting repercussions.

The United Nations General Assembly recently declared that everyone on the planet has a right to a healthy environment. Solar enhances the human right to a clean environment, apart from enabling electricity access, reducing fuel imports, and producing no CO2 emissions. As we face the climate crises, the pathway should be clear: a global investment of dramatic scale to fuel a solar revolution, thereby offering the world its single best chance at building a new, secure, affordable, and clean energy future. Governments will need to prioritise solar and invest in new projects, as it checks off all the boxes that nations consider in energy and sustainability planning: cost, ability to scale, net socioeconomic and sustainability impact, and resilience against future events.

Solar provides the action to the framework of the triple bottom line, the triple helix for change, which is People, Planet and Profit. It presents a generational opportunity to help build a greener and more just economy, one where we develop whole new industries in the pursuit of giving the next generation a planet worth calling home.

Yours sinceresly,
Dr Ajay Mathur
Director-General, International Solar Alliance