As the world’s only crowd-sourced report on renewable energy, the Renewables 2022 Global Status Report (GSR) is in a class of its own. The Renewables 2022 Global Status Report documents the progress made in the renewable energy sector. It highlights the opportunities afforded by a renewable-based economy and society, including the ability to achieve more diversified and inclusive energy governance through localised energy generation and value chains. Countries with higher shares of renewables in their total energy consumption enjoy a greater level of energy independence and security.
In response to an unprecedented public health crisis, countries around the world had hoped to seize the post-COVID-19 opportunity for a green and equitable recovery. Unfortunately, and despite record growth in renewable energy deployment in 2021, this historic chance has been lost. As of mid-2022, the world was experiencing its biggest energy crisis on record. Although this crisis was exacerbated by the Russian Federation’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, prices for fossil fuels – coal, oil and natural gas – were already spiking by late 2021, leading to the threat of energy poverty for billions of people.
Despite evidence that renewables are the most affordable energy source to both improve resilience and support decarbonisation, governments across the world continue to resort to fossil fuel subsidies to keep energy bills under control. This growing gap between countries’ ambition and action on the ground is alarming and sends a clear warning that the global energy transition is not happening.
