Developing countries need proper policies to fulfil renewable pledges - BNEF

Emerging markets and developing countries around the globe have been rushing to make renewable energy pledges but their goals can only be achieved with adequate implementation policies that narrow the gap between short and long-term targets, BloombergNEF (BNEF) says.

The research company on Tuesday published the findings of the latest edition of its annual Climatescope survey that reviews 107 emerging markets and 29 developed nations and assesses the countries’ potential to attract investment in zero-carbon energy sources. This year’s ranking is headed by Chile, followed by India, Mainland China, Colombia and Croatia.

According to the report, more than nine in 10 developing countries have committed to deploying or consuming renewable power by a certain date, up from 82% in 2021 and 67% in 2019 thanks to their ambitions to enhance energy security or address climate change, among others.

Still, stringent policies are needed in order for long-term goals to be met, even in countries that have promised to adopt renewable energy auctions, net metering or feed-in tariffs, BNEF said, adding that follow-through is often missing and the proper implementation of these programmes has turned out fruitless.

“Without supporting regulations, policy implementation alone cannot guarantee that a country attracts the amount of investment needed to kick off its energy transition,” commented Sofia Maia, Climatescope’s project manager.

Some progress has been registered in emerging markets, with at least 56% of the countries having policies in place for reverse clean energy auctions, up from 49% last year, while the percentage for adopting net metering has grown to 53% from 49% and 30% of emerging markets have devised feed-in tariff policies, against 27% in 2021.

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