Building on COP28’s commitments on tripling renewable energy (RE) capacities by 2030 and expanding clean hydrogen production, COP29 aims to translate these goals into actionable initiatives.
The COP29 Presidency, in collaboration with the International Energy Agency (IEA) has introduced three flagship pledges — the Global Energy Storage and Grids Pledge, Hydrogen Declaration and the Green Energy Zones and Corridors Pledge, emphasising global collaboration and financial mobilisation to meet these targets.
The pledges were introduced by COP29 Presidency on the Energy Day, on November 15 during a high-level green energy roundtable event. The pledges are unique as the particular focus is on expanding RE storage and developing new green energy corridors.
The Global Energy Storage and Grids Pledge, led by the COP29 Presidency, aims to achieve a global target of 1,500 GW in energy storage (a six-fold increase in storage) and 25 million kilometres of grid infrastructure by 2030 and an additional 65 million kilometres by 2040.
The ability to store and dispatch renewable energy whenever needed, is an essential component of the clean energy transition and integral to meeting the target of tripling renewables.
Beyond 2030, the need for storage will continue to accelerate with a wide diversity of technologies and durations required to decarbonise global electricity systems and energy-intensive industrial processes.
Secondly, the Green Energy Zones and Corridors Pledge complements the focus on grid expansion. In the event, host country Azerbaijan announced the Central Asia-Azerbaijan Green Energy Corridor as an initiative to promote green energy interconnectedness in central Asia.
The presidency highlighted that Green Corridors are extremely important to central Asia as RE is located far from where the demand is. The green corridors can bring down prices and make RE cost efficient.
The presidency further mentioned the strategic partnership to establish a Caspian green-energy corridor between presidents of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
The ambitious project would seek to transport energy generated in the two central Asian nations to Azerbaijan; the corridor will transport energy generated by wind and solar means across the Caspian Sea.
The third pledge entailed the Hydrogen Declaration, which aims to catalyse a global clean hydrogen market.
This builds on last year’s COP28 commitments to accelerate low-carbon hydrogen production in a wider transition from the usage of fossil fuels.
The pledge reiterates COP28’s call for the global community to scale up low-carbon hydrogen by acting on demand creation, standards and certification, finance, capacity building, trade, research and developmental R&D and sustainability.
In addition, this year the countries are specifically encouraged to include hydrogen in their national climate and energy plans and to monitor the progress made at COP30.
The high-level presidency roundtable was backed by Sweden, Uruguay, the UAE and Brazil, along with multilateral development banks, Global Renewable Alliance and Green Climate Fund, though the signatories have not been mentioned yet.
The IEA’s recent report titled ‘From Taking Stock to Taking Action: How to Implement the COP28 Energy Goals’ assesses what full and timely implementation of the COP28 objectives would mean for the energy system and its emissions and provides guidance on how to achieve this.
The report forms the basis of the three energy pledges that were announced on the energy day at COP29.
It underlines that achieving the tripling renewables by 2030 goal is possible with faster capacity expansion.
Delayed issuing of permits for new grid expansions, a lack of investment in many (often state-owned) grid companies in emerging market and developing economies and old and outdated grids in advanced economies are touted as key bottlenecks.
Moreover, failure to take the necessary action would result in higher electricity prices, more coal and gas generation, higher curtailment of renewables and much higher emissions.
The analysis explores the risks of partial implementation of the tripling goal by 2030, in which grids and storage lag behind the required expansion of capacity, resulting in almost 40 per cent more coal generation and higher curtailment.
It discusses how countries can integrate the COP28 goals into their next round of targets under the Paris Agreement. It emphasises the importance of translating these goals into domestic energy policies.
Following the announcement, a lot depends on how the pledges will be incorporated into national policy targets and how they will hel in realising the initial commitment of tripling RE by 2030.