What the world needs now is a rapid, just, and inclusive energy transition, one that avoids the environmental and social harms that have been witnessed in the past.
There is reason for hope. In 2024 alone, the world added a record 585 gigawatts of renewable-energy capacity, with renewables accounting for more than 90% of new power-generation capacity, driven largely by solar and wind. To put this in context, 585 gigawatts is roughly half the installed capacity of the U.S. In 2025, total investment in clean energy reached $2.2 trillion compared with $286 billion in 2015, reflecting growing confidence in renewables as the backbone of modern economies.
But progress remains dangerously uneven. To keep the global commitment to triple renewable-energy capacity by 2030, each year 1,122 gigawatts of new capacity must be
added. Meanwhile, the countries with the greatest energy-access gaps and least historical responsibility for emissions continue to face the highest costs and the weakest energy infrastructure. Today, only about 20% of global clean-energy investment reaches emerging and developing economies. This imbalance is not just unfair, it is self-defeating.
What the world needs now is leadership and courage to pursue shared goals through multilateralism and its principles of shared rules, institutions, and collective action to solve common problems.
Climate change knows no boundaries and will affect us all. We must therefore think of the global good in the long run as opposed to what a single country or region can gain in the short term. We must act boldly, together, before the window of opportunity closes. Climate ambition without energy equity will fail. Energy access without sustainability will lock in future emissions, and the path forward demands both.
Across the world we have seen that when energy poverty persists, development follows the most available and affordable paths, and often it is the most carbon-intensive ones. Without access to modern, reliable, and clean energy, countries are locked into inefficient fuels, fragile grids, and stopgap solutions that raise emissions and deepen vulnerability.
It is worth pointing out that the Global South will account for nearly all future growth in population, cities, and energy demand. Ignoring these realities does not reduce emissions, it simply shifts them. If clean energy is not deployed at scale where demand is growing fastest, global emissions trajectories will overshoot every target, no matter how rapidly the Global North decarbonizes its own economies.
Global climate ambition is not credible without the tools and assistance poorer countries require. Asking them to leapfrog to low-carbon pathways while denying them finance, technology, and infrastructure undermines trust and fractures global cooperation—the very cooperation climate action depends on.
What the world needs now is scaling up concessional finance, de-risking investments, and deploying innovative financial solutions that will see clean-energy capital flowing to where it is needed most. Greater capital flows with strong policies and political will for the energy transition will create decent jobs and economic opportunity, and usher in a new age of green growth while ensuring that everyone everywhere has enough power to live a dignified life.
The energy transition is not a trade-off, it is a multiplier, and this moment calls for urgency without exclusion, ambition without delay, and cooperation across borders and sectors. Governments, the private sector, development banks, philanthropies, civil society, and citizens must align around a shared goal: ensuring energy for all.
What the world needs now is to stand up for what science tells us, that clean energy is no longer a choice, it is the pathway to a secure and economically resilient future. As a global community we must face this moment ready to deploy solutions, at speed and at scale.
Ogunbiyi is the CEO and Special Representative of the U.N. Secretary-General for Sustainable Energy for All, and co-chair of U.N.-Energy.
