European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has joined calls for countries to set a worldwide target for renewable energy.
Von der Leyen, who also proposed setting a separate global target for energy efficiency, suggested this could be achieved by the COP28 United Nations climate talks taking place in Dubai at the end of this year.
“Today, I would like to launch a new initiative to work together towards global targets for energy efficiency, and renewable energy,” she said Thrusday in remarks to the Major Economies Forum (MEF) on Energy and Climate hosted by U.S. President Joe Biden. “We could develop these targets by COP28.”
As previously reported by POLITICO, ministers from 43 countries discussed the idea of a global renewables target at a meeting in Copenhagen last month.
Francesco La Camera, head of the International Renewable Energy Agency, also told POLITICO in an interview earlier this month that his organization backed the initiative.
In a video message, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres urged the MEF countries — responsible for the vast majority of the world’s emissions — to accelerate their transition toward renewables.
“Phase out coal by 2030 in OECD countries and 2040 in all others,” he said. “Make sure generation of electricity is net-zero by 2035 in developed countries, and 2040 elsewhere.”
Guterres also reiterated his previous call on developed countries to bring their climate neutrality targets forward to 2040.
