693 GW Record Renewables in 2025, Still 0.6 TW Short of 2030

For the climate and energy community, IRENA's record 693 GW is both proof the transition is accelerating and a reminder that even record growth is not enough to hit the 2030 tripling target. The gap has narrowed to 0.6 TW, but staying on the 2025 trajectory still leaves the world 0.6 TW short — a deficit roughly equivalent to another record year of additions. The next months of UNGA and pre-COP negotiations matter because closing that gap requires not just more solar and wind, but the harder work of grids, storage, and efficiency.

On 21 September 2026, as world leaders converged on New York for the United Nations General Assembly, the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) released an assessment that captures both the accelerating market momentum behind clean power and the stubborn gap between current growth and climate ambition. IRENA found that global renewable power capacity expanded by a record 693 gigawatts in 2025 — more than half the installed capacity of the entire United States. The headline is undeniably positive: renewables added more new capacity in a single year than ever before, and according to the report they remained the most cost-competitive source of new electricity in most markets during 2025. Yet the same data show why the world is still not moving fast enough.

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That figure — nearly $500 billion — is more than the national GDP of over three-quarters of countries on Earth, he added.

The target at issue is the pledge made at COP28 in 2023 to triple global renewable capacity by 2030. To meet it, the world would need to reach roughly 11.2 terawatts by the end of the decade, up from 5.15 terawatts today. If additions continue at the 2025 pace, IRENA calculates the world would land at about 10.6 terawatts in 2030 — 0.6 terawatts short. That is a slightly smaller gap than the 0.9 terawatts identified in last year's assessment, suggesting the direction has improved. But a shortfall of 600 GW remains enormous: it is nearly the equivalent of another record 2025 year, and it would require sustained deployment well beyond current record levels. The report also warned that on the parallel goal of doubling the rate of energy efficiency improvement by 2030, the world is still well behind.

Simon Stiell, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, used the report to frame the shift in economic terms. Speaking at the Industry Acceleration Summit, Stiell said that thanks to global renewables, humanity avoided almost half a trillion U.S. dollars in fossil fuel costs. That figure — nearly $500 billion — is more than the national GDP of over three-quarters of countries on Earth, he added. Stiell called it a mammoth decarbonisation dividend and argued that the brute power of market forces is taking hold, making the shift to clean energy irreversible. These are strong claims, but the underlying cost trajectory supports them: renewables have become the default choice for new generation in many markets, no longer primarily because of policy support but because they are often cheaper than fossil fuel alternatives.

The report's location in the news cycle matters. It was released amid the UN General Assembly following a record-hot Northern Hemisphere summer that sharpened public concern over worsening climate impacts. In that light, the 693 GW record is a critical milestone but also a stress test for the institutions and investment systems that must scale what is already the fastest-growing segment of the power sector. IRENA's findings imply that the clean energy transition is no longer a technology question but increasingly a delivery question: can grids be upgraded fast enough to absorb hundreds of gigawatts of variable solar and wind? Can storage be deployed at the speed required to make that variability manageable? And can efficiency gains — the other half of the COP28 promise — accelerate from their current lag?