On 19 November at the G20 Summit in Rio de Janeiro, the UK prime minister Keir Starmer and Brazil’s president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva confirmed the launch of a new partnership, The Global Clean Power Alliance. Its aim is to speed up the global drive for clean power by uniting, developed and developing countries across the north and south of the globe. It will work together and share expertise with the goal of meeting the COP28 commitments to triple renewable energy and double energy efficiency.
The new diplomatic grouping is led by the UK, with 12 signatories so far and support from the US and the EU. It will initially focus on a ‘mission’ to mobilise significantly scaled up energy transition finance, with more ‘missions’ to come. The targets that the new alliance will set, and how it will utilise the large number of existing alliances to drive real-world delivery, have yet to be announced. Brazil, Australia, Barbados, Canada, Chile, Colombia, France, Germany, Morocco, Norway, Tanzania, and the African Union are the first countries to sign up to its first mission. The United States and the European Union will also partner with the UK in this initiative.
The Alliance will set up its missions to address the most critical energy transition challenges. The first of these, the Finance Mission, which was due to be published at the G20 summit, is co-chaired by Brazil, and will aim at harnessing the political leadership needed to unlock private finance on a huge scale, so that no developing country is left behind.
Leo Roberts, Lead of the Coal to Clean programme of the E3G, commented: “Following its ambitious NDC [Nationally Determined Contribution] the UK is bringing leadership in the race to deliver clean power globally, in line with the global commitment to transition away from fossil fuels made at COP28. The GCPA situates the UK centrally in driving political action to address the chronic financing challenges faced by many Global South countries. It now needs to set some clear, ambitious goals for finance mobilisation, and show how it will leverage existing and new diplomatic alliances to drive political leadership and action on the ground.”
E3G (Third Generation Environmentalism) is a climate change think tank established in 2004 and operating to accelerate a global transition to a low-carbon future. It has staff based in Brussels, Berlin, London and Washington, D.C.
