This report presents the status of renewable energy employment, both by technology and in selected countries, over the past year. In this fourth edition, the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) finds that renewable energy employed 9.8 million people around the world in 2016 – a 1.1% increase over 2015.

The report lays out a pathway to a renewable-based energy system and shows that the transition promises substantial gains in GDP, employment, and human welfare in each region of the African continent.

This report highlights the role of islands in global efforts against climate change. It highlights transitions to renewables in the power, including planning and implementation, enabling business models and transition tools.

The brief by IRENA, highlights North Africa’s large renewable energy potential and explores its current policy environment to support the energy transition and the deployment of renewable energy in the coming years.

East and Southern African countries possess vast potential for renewable energy development. This report assesses the prospects for the power sector in the countries of the ACEC through 2040.

Renewable energy auctions are an increasingly popular tool for governments to procure renewable electricity at moderate cost. IRENA’s report, Renewable Energy Auctions in Developing Countries, describes various types and aspects of renewable energy auction schemes, drawing on the actual experiences of five countries: Brazil, China, Morocco, Peru and South Africa.

The study defines a trajectory to 2030 based on current government policies and plans and identifies the options for additional renewables deployment by energy-use sector and technology.

IRENA’s working paper, Doubling the Global Share of Renewable Energy: A Roadmap to 2030, outlines the proposed process, and progress to date, of REMAP 2030 – IRENA’s global roadmap for policies and actions to double the share of renewable energy by 2030.

Auctions can help countries across sub-Saharan Africa achieve record-low prices for solar and wind power. Five countries have run renewable energy auctions, while at least 15 more are developing such programmes.

Low-cost renewable energy, especially from solar photovoltaic (PV) installations, has become an increasingly important part of West Africa’s electricity supply. This report outlines three broad scenarios for the growth of renewables in the region’s power systems, particularly in relation to key national and regional targets.

The historic Paris climate agreement, adopted by countries around the world in December 2015, aims to the rise of global temperature well below 2 degrees Celsius. Renewable energy will play a key role in this effort, which encompasses developing as well as developed countries, by increasing the supply of cheap and accessible energy in a less carbon-intensive manner.

This report explores potential for urban communities to scale-up renewables by 2030, based on estimated energy use 3,649 cities around the world. By highlighting the best practices, it examines the policies and technologies by which cities can bring about a renewable energy future.

A Renewables Readiness Assessment (RRA) identifies the actions needed to overcome a country’s barriers to renewable energy deployment, with IRENA providing technical support and expertise to facilitate consultations among different national stakeholders.

This report explains how IRENA approached the challenges of data collection to produce the estimates of off-grid energy production and use. An overview of the data collected and detailed tables are provided.

The number of people without access to electricity is estimated at more than a billion, while almost 2.9 billion still rely on traditional, unsustainable biomass sources such as firewood for cooking and heating. About 80% of those lacking modern energy access live in rural areas, which also host more than 70% of the world’s poor.

This study presents a methodology to estimate the sustainable energy potential from land restoration in line with the Bonn Challenge, particularly as it relates to African countries.

This report explores how African countries can achieve universal energy access within the 2030 Agenda timeframe. Also, explores transformational potential of the electricity sector in five Africa countries.

IRENA’s new spatiotemporal data atlas, AfREP-Hydro, covers all existing and several hundred committed, planned and potential future hydropower plants across Africa.

This brief identifies key recommendations and subsequent action points for scaling up renewable energy investments in West Africa, covering various policy, financial and technical dimensions, and emphasising the immense opportunities and advantages that renewable energy can bring to the region.

This study aims to estimate the potential for sustainable bioenergy production in Africa through such systems, based on the evaluation of yields for 15 short-rotation woody crops.

This report summarises the presentations and discussions held at the webinar series entitled: Long-Term Energy Scenarios (LTES) for Developing National Energy Transition Plans in Africa.

This report shows the importance of regional coordination in long-term planning, by showcasing collective opportunities for North African countries to diversify their electricity generation mixes and reduce their reliance on fossil fuel resources by 2040.

This study reviews the bioenergy potential from sugarcane and associated development costs in seven sugar-producing countries in the Southern African Development Community (SADC), aiming to provide a foundation for more detailed country-level studies exploring practical potential.

Mauritania possesses significant renewable energy resources, which could be developed to strengthen the economy and improve access to energy. Solar and wind energy technologies are well suited for integration into the country’s existing network of mini-grids, according to this Renewables Readiness Assessment (RRA) report released by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) in association with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

A Renewables Readiness Assessment (RRA) identifies the actions needed to overcome a country’s barriers to renewable energy deployment, with IRENA providing technical support and expertise to facilitate consultations among different national stakeholders.