Five ways to jump-start the renewable energy transition now

Four key climate change indicators – greenhouse gas concentrations, sea level rise, ocean heat and ocean acidification – set new records in 2021. This is yet another clear sign that human activities are causing planetary-scale changes on land, in the ocean, and in the atmosphere, with dramatic and long-lasting ramifications.

The key to tackling this crisis is to end our reliance on energy generated from fossil fuels – the main cause of climate change. 

“The good news is that the lifeline is right in front of us,” says UN Secretary-General António Guterres, stressing that renewable energy technologies like wind and solar already exist today, and in most cases, are cheaper than coal and other fossil fuels.  We now need to put them to work, urgently, at scale and speed.

The Secretary-General outlines five critical actions the world needs to prioritize now to transform our energy systems and speed up the shift to renewable energy – “because without renewables, there can be no future.”