Progress on 2030 Renewable Energy Targets by Country

The International Energy Agency states that the global installed capacity of renewable energy must triple by 2030 to limit global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. 

This makes the next six years critical in the climate fight, with the upcoming United Nations COP28 event in Dubai representing a great time to assess the progress of countries toward achieving their 2030 targets. 

Checking in on Progress

As set out by their Nationally Determined Contributions in the Paris Agreement, many countries, including major electricity consumers such as the U.S., European Union, China, India, and the UK, have set ambitious targets for increasing their solar and wind power generation capacities by 2030. 

The data, however, suggests that many are struggling to keep pace with the required annual capacity additions that will allow them to hit these targets. 

Currently, China stands out as the only nation on track to meet its 2030 target. In 2022, it not only met but significantly exceeded its required capacity additions to remain on track, adding 168% of the required 101 GW. 

Let’s now take a closer look at how each of these countries are faring, comparing how much wind and solar capacity they needed to add with how much they actually did in 2022.

Overall, the U.S. and India were the furthest off from their targets in 2022, adding only 46% and 57% of what was needed, respectively. European countries, on the other hand, made progress but still need substantial annual additions to meet their targets by 2030.

Playing Catch-Up: The Path to 2030

Collectively, the U.S., European Union, China, India, and the UK account for more than 60% of global electricity consumption, underscoring their profound responsibility in decarbonizing their electricity sectors.

Investments in research and development, policy support, and infrastructure development are all crucial pieces of the puzzle when it comes to achieving 2030 targets. 

With swift and bold action, these nations have an opportunity to transform the global energy landscape and move the needle toward achieving net-zero on a global scale.

Which Utilities Have The Cleanest Electricity Generation?

For the second year, Visual Capitalist and our sponsor National Public Utilities Council have developed the Annual Utility Decarbonization Index. The index quantifies and compares the status of decarbonization among the 47 largest investor-owned utilities (IOUs) in the United States, ranking them on six metrics based on publicly available 2021 data.

• Metric 1: Fuel Mix
• Metric 2: CO₂ Emissions Intensity
• Metric 3: Total CO₂ Emissions
• Metric 4: CO₂ Emissions per Customer
• Metric 5: Decarbonization Goals
• Metric 6: Low-Carbon Investment

The graphic above gives a preview of the first metric’s results, which ranks U.S. utilities by the share of low-carbon sources in their owned electricity generations.

Let’s now dive into the included IOUs and their rankings.

Which Utilities Are Included In the Decarbonization Index?

The IOUs that were ranked in this year’s Utility Decarbonization Index are the 47 largest U.S. IOUs by their 2021 net owned and purchased electricity generations, which are as follows.

U.S. IOUs that had fewer than 2 million megawatt-hours (MWh) of owned generation were excluded from the report. Companies with blue outlines, on the other hand, represent those that have international operations in addition to their operations in the United States.

Which U.S. Utilities Had the Cleanest Generation in 2021?

The top 47 U.S. IOUs outlined above generated 2.7 billion MWh of electricity and served 68% of all U.S. electric customers in 2021.

Collectively, 60% of this generation came from fossil fuels such as natural gas and coal, whereas the remaining 40% came from carbon-free energy sources, such as nuclear, wind, and solar.

But each utility’s fuel mix looked very different across the board. Let’s see which ones had the cleanest owned generation.

Overall, nuclear power was the single largest source of clean electricity among these utility companies in 2021. Conversely, 17 IOUs used fossil fuels for more than 80% of their owned electricity generation, and some as high as 100%.

Download The 2023 Annual Utility Decarbonization Report

The 2023 Annual Utility Decarbonization Report is a deep dive into the state of decarbonization across the investor-owned utility sector in the United States.

What else does the report include?

• The full Annual Utility Decarbonization Index 2023 with data breakdowns for each of the six metrics
• ESG Report Card 2023
• Sector highlights and challenges in 2021-22
• Six Reasons for Decarbonizing Utilities
• Decarbonization Strategies for U.S. Utilities

Download the free report now.