In September 2015, 193 world leaders agreed to 17 Global Goals for Sustainable Development. If these Goals are completed, it would mean an end to extreme poverty, inequality and climate change by 2030.
Goal 7: Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.

• [New] By 2022, DTE will increase its generation capacity from renewable energy to more than 2,400 megawatts, enough clean energy to power 900,000 homes.
• [New] Energy demand in the transportation sector is expected to reach a peak around 2030 as the sales of vehicles with internal combustion engines are stagnating or declining, and sales of alternative-fueled vehicles, especially electric vehicles, are increasing.
• [New] Compared to last year's outlook, BP's renewable energy's share of global energy in 2040 is expected to be 7 percentage points higher, due to higher-than-expected contributions from bioenergy, wind and solar power, supported by green hydrogen production and assumed large cost declines.
• [New] Carbon emissions from energy use in the Rapid scenario are expected to decline by about 70% by 2050, which is in the middle of the range of well below 2-degree scenarios ‎ contained in the 2019 IPCC Report.
• [New] Growth in China's energy demand slows sharply relative to past trends, reaching a peak in the early 2030s in all three scenarios.
• [New] The Virginia State Corporation Commission issued a proposed rule to put Dominion Energy and the Appalachian Power Company on a path toward 2.7 GW and 400 MW, respectively, of energy storage by 2035.
• [New] To improve air quality, the Government of India has an ambitious target: to increase the share of natural gas within India's total energy consumption from approximately 6% to 15% by 2030.
• [New] Even with energy demand set to expand on the back of growing population and emerging economies, the sources of energy will shift dramatically to renewable sources such as wind and solar.
• [New] Colombia just announced a new economic recovery plan that will spend $4 billion on renewable energy and energy transmission projects, including nine wind, five solar, three geothermal and one hydropower project.
• [New] As the least carbon-intensive fossil fuel, natural gas will play a prominent role in the energy transition, taking its place as the world's largest energy source from the mid-2020s.
• [New] Under BP's Rapid scenario, demand for liquid fuels will drop to 55 million bpd by 2050, with the scenario also factoring in a 70-percent reduction in emissions from energy use by that year.
• [New] Demand for oil will be the biggest casualty over lower energy demand in the coming three decades as weaker economic growth and a faster shift to renewable energy accelerate the demise of oil-based transport fuels.
• [New] The part played by renewables in the world's energy mix could increase from around 5% today to anything between 20% and 60% by 2050, although concerns still linger over the ability of renewables alone to fulfil energy demands.
• Deep decarbonization of the world's energy system is still 15 years away, with carbon emissions set to remain high until the mid-2030s.
• With the prices of renewable energy at record lows and increasing investment flows, the next decade will be a defining one for the global transition to clean energy.
• To reduce Europe's greenhouse gas emissions by at least by 55% by 2030, we need to significantly increase the share of renewable energy.
• In North America, high energy costs will drive a strong market growth for energy service and performance contracting, which Frost & Sullivan believes will more than double in size during the next ten years, and finish the decade worth $US19.14 billion.
• The Institute of Energy of Vietnam is drafting a new master power development plan and has compiled a list of 22 LNG power plants with a combined capacity of up to 108.5 gigawatts (GW), the first of which will become operational by 2023.
• The Chinese government's objective is to increase the share of natural gas in China's energy mix from around 8% in 2019 to 10% in 2020 and 15% in 2030 in a bid to improve air quality.39 (For comparison, natural gas accounted for 25% of global energy consumption in 2019).
• China's demand for natural gas, which emits half the carbon dioxide of coal, is projected to rise to 15% of total primary energy consumption by 2030, driven by power generation and residential sectors.
• Over the coming decades, at least $2 trillion each year will be invested around the world in the transition to low carbon power, transport, heat and localised, digitally connected energy systems.
• The average annual increase in wind and solar capacity over the next 15 years could reach as high as 350 GW or even 550 GW, and push the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix to almost 60% by 2050.

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Last updated: 27 September 2020