“Far greater” international cooperation is needed if the world is to achieve net zero by 2050, according to the inaugural ‘Breakthrough Agenda Report‘. While there has been progress, as seen through the doubling of sales for electric vehicles and an 8% growth in global renewable capacity, improved international collaboration will ensure “a faster and cheaper transition, while boosting job growth”, said the authors of the report – the International Energy Agency (IEA), International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) and UN Climate Change High-Level Champions. Requested by 45 world leaders, the report provides an outline of 25 recommended collaborative actions to better coordinate investment to scale up clean energy deployment and drive down costs across five key sectors: power, road transport, steel, hydrogen and agriculture. These sectors collectively account for 60% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The recommendations include setting up international centres of expertise to channel finance and technical assistance to help coal-producing countries transition and creating new cross-border supergrids this decade to increase trade in low-carbon power and reduce global emissions. Nigel Topping, UN Climate Change High-Level Champion for the UK, said: “Countries with the thousands of non-state actors running the Race to Zero and Race to Resilience must collaborate more strongly to drive forward the transition to affordable zero emission solutions in each emitting sector of the economy. This is as essential for development as it is for avoiding dangerous climate change. Clear steps must be taken at COP27 to implement the Breakthrough Agenda commitment to collective action that makes clean technologies affordable and available to all who need them throughout the world.”
