One month into 2021 there are lots of reasons to be optimistic for the renewables sector and the climate. Even while we still deal with the disruption and grief caused by coronavirus, there is still cause for hope.
In just over a week, we’ve seen the US take the lead again on climate action, global popular consensus on the climate emergency, and the world’s biggest asset manager demand that polluters get serious about Net Zero.
The new US President, Joe Biden, has already signed over 50 executive orders on the climate crisis, including re-joining the Paris Agreement and setting new targets for renewable energy. The Canadian Prime Minister has also just pledged billions more dollars for emissions reduction and increased Canada’s carbon tax.
A global UN poll found this week that two thirds of the world’s people agree that we face a climate emergency (81% in the the UK), and there is global consensus for more solar, wind and renewable energy.
Even BlackRock this week threatened to sell shares in the biggest polluters, with their CEO declaring “No issue ranks higher than climate change on our clients’ lists of priorities.”
With news like this, and the COP26 climate summit in November, we are hopeful that this could be the year the world turns a corner in the climate emergency.