COP30, held in Belém, Brazil – with a focus on moving from climate pledges to implementation and finance – draws to a close at the end of this week, 21 November.
Key takeaways from the 30th annual United Nations Climate Change Conference with implications for the civils sector were a particular focus on Day 5, 14 November. With the aim of linking innovation with investment, the day saw governments, industry, finance, and civil society step forward to scale sustainable fuels, modernise power systems, and deepen industrial decarbonisation, according to COP30’s messaging.
On energy storage, utilities committed nearly $150bn (£114bn) annually to grid and storage expansion.
The Global Grids and Storage Coordination Council – a newly established body launched at COP30 to drive the implementation of the Global Energy Storage and Grids Pledge – confirmed aims to accelerate the expansion and resilience of global power grids and energy storage capacity to support the clean energy transition.
Fortifying grids and storage was identified as key focus in the energy sector. The Utilities for Net Zero Alliance (UNEZA) announced a sharp increase in its annual energy-transition investment plans, committing nearly $150bn (£114bn) per year, up from $117bn (£89bn) with a major emphasis on power grids and storage. These commitments position leading utilities to invest around $1tn (£760bn) to more than triple their collective renewable capacity by 2030 relative to 2023, while delivering new grid extensions, upgrades, and storage assets.
The Global Grids and Storage Coordination Council launched under the Action Agenda to take forward the COP30 “Plan to Accelerate the Expansion and Resilience of Power Grids”, led by the Green Grids Initiative (GGI). This Council will coordinate relevant stakeholders towards grid expansion and a renewables-powered future.
On the transport front, a ministerial declaration aligning transport with 1.5°C pathways and the launch of an energy-efficiency de-risking platform.
Ministers from Chile, Brazil, Honduras, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Spain, Portugal, Norway, Slovenia, Costa Rica set out a collective effort to align the transport sector, the second largest emitting sector, with the 1.5°C goal. The declaration responds to this gap by calling for a global transport effort to achieve a 25% drop in overall energy demand from transport by 2035 and shift one-third of transport energy to sustainable biofuels and renewable sources, with differentiated pathways that reflect national circumstances.
The Clean Energy Ministry’s Future Fuels Action Plan was launched as the implementation platform for the Belem Commitment for Sustainable Fuels (Belem 4x), setting out 20 cross-sector actions to quadruple sustainable fuel use by 2035, to be tracked annually by the International Energy Agency (IEA). It focuses on demand creation, transparent carbon accounting, and infrastructure development such as trade corridors to scale production globally in hard to abate sectors, such as aviation, shipping, steel, and cement.
With implications for the aviation sector, The Joint Declaration on Development and Promotion of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) in Latin America saw six major groups representing farmers, biofuel producers, airlines, and energy sectors across Latin America and the Caribbean sign the declaration to “turbocharge” the use of SAF.
“By bringing supply-side actors together with demand-side aviation stakeholders, the region is unlocking its huge SAF production potential for aviation decarbonisation,” COP30’s messaging confirmed.
The declaration establishes five priority actions:
- setting up unified fuel rules across the region
- creating national laws that support it
- establishing “farm-to-flight” supply chains
- securing major funding
- building a regional roadmap for technical collaboration.
The day also saw financial institutions globally endorse new Climate Finance Principles for Grids to standardise and scale investment in emerging economies: The principles establish a common framework to enable grid investments’ eligibility for climate finance. Institutions backing the framework include: the African Development Bank, British International Investment, East African Development Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, Climate Bonds Initiative, Institutional Investors Group for Climate Change, Asia Investor Group on Climate Change, Global Renewables Alliance, Grid Works, Utilities for Net Zero Alliance, and the UK Government.
The Asian Development Bank and World Bank announced $12.5bn (£9.5bn) in combined financing to strengthen the ASEAN Power Grid. The Inter-American Development Bank launched the Power Transmission Acceleration Platform for Latin America and the Caribbean, with Germany committing €15M (£13.2M) to support grid expansion and modernisation.
The Energy Efficiency De-Risking Platform also launched – a new mechanism to connect investors with project pipelines, with partners including development finance institutions, international organisations and the private sector. The de-risking facility will be a one-stop marketplace that countries can access for support on project preparation, technical assistance and instruments for de-risking in the following sectors: industry, transport, buildings, appliances, and lighting.
Materials
Interoperability agreements among steel standards initiatives – now covering 70% of global production – established foundations for a global market in near-zero steel.
Two years after COP28’s Steel Standards Principles launch, ResponsibleSteel signed bilateral agreements with Chinese (CISA) and European (LESS) steel standards initiatives to enable interoperability between regional steel standards. Together, they represent 70% of global steel production and will develop tools to convert carbon intensity data into a common global scale with independent verification. This creates the foundation for a global market in near-zero and low-emissions steel.
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