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The global pipeline for wind and utility-scale solar reached 4.9 TW in 2025, an 11% increase, though growth has slowed compared to 2024. China dominates the landscape, with over 1.6 TW of operating capacity and 1.5 TW in its prospective pipeline. In contrast, G7 countries account for only 11% of prospective capacity additions, with their pipeline remaining largely stagnant at approximately 520 GW since 2023. Distributed solar represents about 42% of global solar capacity but remains highly concentrated in a few countries, with China leading at 489 GW. The report concludes that current pipelines are insufficient to meet the COP28 goal of tripling renewable energy by 2030, with a projected deficit of 1 TW for wind and 1.6 TW for utility-scale solar.

While global renewable energy additions continue to break records, primarily driven by solar and China, current forecasts suggest a tripling by 2030 is not guaranteed without increased government ambition and implementation. The document highlights a misalignment between rapid deployment and national targets, which risks underinvestment in critical enabling systems such as grids, storage, and flexibility. It specifically emphasizes the need to scale up wind energy through supply chain unlocking and stable policy mechanisms, while urging parallel investment in infrastructure to prevent solar curtailment and bottlenecks.

The world is currently ahead of the curve to triple renewable capacity by 2030 due to an average annual addition growth of 29% from 2023 to 2025. However, IEA forecasts suggest a potential shortfall, with the main case predicting only 9,530 GW by 2030 due to policy changes in the US and China, primarily driven by deficits in wind and hydro capacity.

Global renewable capacity additions are forecast to reach a record 793 GW in 2025, driven largely by solar and China's deployment. While the actual annual growth rate of additions from 2023 to 2025 (29%) has exceeded the 21% required to triple capacity by 2030, IEA forecasts suggest a potential 15% shortfall in capacity and a 28% shortfall in generation by 2030, primarily due to lags in wind and hydro. National targets remain insufficient, aiming for just over a doubling of capacity (7,793 GW) rather than a tripling, with solar targets particularly lagging behind actual deployment trends.

Two years after the COP28 agreement to triple global renewable capacity by 2030, national targets remain largely stagnant. As of July 2025, the global sum of national targets has increased by only 2% since COP28, reaching 7.4 TW, which is significantly below the 11 TW required to meet the tripling goal. Only 22 countries have updated their targets, with the majority of these being EU member states revising plans through the National Energy and Climate Plan (NECP) process. Most non-EU updates occurred through routine planning cycles rather than as a direct response to COP pledges. Major electricity markets, including the US, Russia, and Canada, have either not set explicit targets or are unlikely to update them in 2025.

The We Mean Business Coalition states that U.S. businesses will continue to pursue clean energy and climate resilience because climate-related factors present concrete operational risks and the global market for clean technologies is expanding. The coalition emphasizes that non-federal actors in the U.S. remain committed to climate goals and urges that COP29 negotiations maintain momentum to deliver global finance for national climate plans.

While solar PV and onshore wind are now the cheapest new power generation options in many countries, substantial barriers remain in emerging and developing economies. To achieve the COP 28 goal of tripling renewable capacity by 2030, the report advocates for targeted public financial measures including concessional finance, grid modernization, and fossil fuel subsidy reform, supported by increased international transfers.

National wind targets from 70 countries and the EU aim for a collective capacity of 2,157 GW by 2030, which represents a 2.4x increase from 2022 but falls short of the 2,742 GW required for a tripling. While global forecasts suggest these targets are achievable in aggregate, this is primarily due to China's expected over-performance; most other countries are projected to fall short of their own targets. The report highlights significant implementation gaps in the US and India, while noting that Brazil and Türkiye are likely to exceed their targets due to low initial ambition.

The report identifies a significant gap between global solar panel manufacturing capacity and projected deployment, resulting in 'spare' capacity of 3,837 GW between 2024 and 2030. Utilizing this surplus could enable the world to exceed the COP28 target of tripling renewable energy capacity by 2030, reaching 13,345 GW (a 21% excess). The document argues that deploying just one-seventh of this spare capacity could meet the electricity demand growth and extend basic energy access to the entire populations of 88 analyzed Global South countries. It highlights that 80-85% of manufacturing is based in China, where companies are already facing investment delays and layoffs due to under-deployment. The report suggests a 'win-win-win' scenario where China maintains its industry, Global South nations gain energy independence and access, and developed nations fulfill their climate finance responsibilities.

The report finds that many of the world's largest fossil fuel producers fail to address the transition of the fossil fuel sector in their climate plans. It argues that third-generation NDCs must include specific targets, pathways, and policies to wind down production in alignment with the COP 28 agreement to ensure a just and orderly transition.

The G7 is urged to set a goal to triple its renewable energy capacity by 2030, as current collective targets only aim for a doubling. This alignment is presented as necessary to meet the global goal agreed upon at COP28 and to keep the 1.5C temperature goal within reach.

The policy brief asserts that for the global goal of tripling renewable capacity to be met, G7 nations must collectively increase their capacity from 0.9 TW in 2022 to 2.7 TW by 2030. Current G7 targets only amount to 2 TW, representing a doubling rather than a tripling, and leaving a 0.7 TW gap. While Germany and the UK have targets reaching at least 80% of a tripling, France and Japan are lagging, and the US and Canada lack official targets.

The author contends that despite 2024 being a record-breaking election year and the hottest year on record, news outlets are sidelining the climate crisis in political reporting. This is particularly evident in the US, where climate issues are often treated as afterthoughts or framed as unsettled science. To address this, Covering Climate Now is launching 'The Climate Elections project,' which includes a newsletter and resources to help reporters integrate climate issues into campaign coverage, moving away from 'horserace' reporting toward substantive policy questions.

In 2023, renewables reached a record 30% of global electricity generation, driven by solar and wind. Despite this, global power sector emissions rose by 1% to a record 14,153 million tonnes of CO2, as severe droughts caused a five-year low in hydropower, forcing a reliance on coal in countries like China and India. Solar was the fastest-growing source for the 19th consecutive year, while OECD countries continued to see falling emissions. Ember forecasts that 2023 marked the peak of power sector emissions, with a decline expected in 2024 as clean generation growth is projected to outpace electricity demand.

The document highlights that 2023 is virtually certain to be the hottest year on record, driven by human-caused greenhouse gas emissions. It details the resulting increase in extreme weather events, the long-term trend of rapid warming since the industrial revolution, and the necessity of transitioning to clean energy to meet global climate targets.

GreenLatinos boycotted COP28 due to the appointment of a state-owned oil company CEO as summit president and the hosting of the event in the United Arab Emirates, a top oil producer. The organization argues that the presence of nearly 2,500 fossil fuel lobbyists and the UAE's history of methane emission misinformation compromised the conference's integrity. While acknowledging the agreement to "transition away" from fossil fuels and the US announcement of Methane Oil and Gas rules, GreenLatinos maintains that the COP28 outcome falls short of a complete fossil fuel phase-out required to protect frontline communities.

The document argues that media coverage of COP events often focuses disproportionately on failure and inefficiency while ignoring the influence of fossil fuel lobbies, the role of NGOs, and the historical tensions between developed and developing nations. It outlines the key objectives of COP 28, including the first global climate action stocktake and the operationalization of the loss and damage fund, and counters myths regarding the utility of COPs and the role of technological innovation in solving the climate crisis.

The Center for Climate Integrity argues that TIME magazine's list of influential climate leaders erroneously includes fossil fuel executives, such as Sultan Al Jaber and representatives from ExxonMobil, thereby failing to recognize the industry as the cause of the climate emergency.

The briefing asserts that current fossil fuel production is incompatible with temperature limits and calls for a full phase-out of fossil fuels at COP28. It argues that carbon capture and storage (CCS) cannot achieve the necessary declines by 2030 and urges delegates to reject qualifiers like "unabated" or a focus on "fossil fuel emissions" in the final agreement.

The document reports that global public financial support for fossil fuels reached a record high of over USD 1.7 trillion in 2022, driven largely by USD 1.3 trillion in subsidies. It notes a discrepancy in G7 financing, where USD 20 billion was provided for fossil fuels compared to USD 10 billion for clean energy. The briefing argues that these flows contradict the Paris Agreement and COP 26 pledges, calling for a total phase-out of fossil fuel production and consumption and a shift of public finance toward clean energy and just transition measures.