First: Weak investments in clean energy compared to fossil fuels

The IEA warns that emerging economies such as Africa, India, Latin America and Southeast Asia risk being left behind at the current pace. Together, these areas represent only 15% of investments. According to the agency, more efforts are needed to ensure that renewable energy sources become more available in these countries.

“These emerging countries are often located around the equator and therefore have a huge amount of solar potential. But if you install solar panels, the capital costs are much greater than the operational costs.” This means that when you install solar panels, you initially pay a lot of money to purchase and install. After that, its operating and maintenance costs become much lower. “Many emerging countries do not have well-developed capital markets, which means interest rates on loans are much higher,” says Van de Graaf.

He says the solution is to reduce the cost of capital in these countries. This can be done by investing money directly or by lending it, for example through development banks. Lower renewable energy prices are an additional factor that will make the technology more accessible in emerging countries.