Belém, Brazil, 18 November – Governments and international organisations at COP30 announced a wave of major commitments to expand electricity grids and energy storage, addressing what is widely viewed as one of the biggest bottlenecks to meeting global climate goals. The announcements were presented during a ministerial media event hosted by the German Government and the Global Renewables Alliance (GRA).

Senior representatives from Germany, Azerbaijan, UK, Australia, the COP30 Presidency, Global Grids Catalyst (GGC), the International Energy Agency, the Green Grids Initiative, the Global Renewables Alliance and the Inter American Development Bank (IDB) underlined the urgency of accelerating grid and storage development to integrate rapidly growing volumes of renewable energy and support delivery of the Global Stocktake (GST) goals.

Carsten Schneider, Federal Minister for the Environment, Climate Action, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, Germany said: “Power grids and storage capacity is the key to the global energy transition. Without efficient grids, gigawatts of renewable energy remain unused. This is why we will support initiatives that help with planning, managing and enhancing supply chains for grids, and we offer financial and technical support to massively scale up investments worldwide – public and private. Together, we can move faster. Germany already has some of the world’s leading expertise in integrating renewable energy into power systems.”

“The energy transition cannot happen without proper energy grids and storage. Delays here are a bottleneck that is stifling the next wave of renewable energy,” said Mukhtar Babayev, COP29 President and Azerbaijan’s Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources. “At COP29 we set a new goal to increase global energy storage by six times by 2030. Building on this momentum at COP30 will be a vital enabler of the energy transition.”

Dan Ioschpe, COP30 High Level Climate Champion, underscored the growing momentum for grids and storage under the COP30 Action Agenda: “There is a critical shift in current policy debates from just generating renewables to focusing on prices, economics, grid integration, efficiency and resilience of the system – hence storage and grids become essential.” 

A strong financial signal came from the Utilities for Net Zero Alliance (UNEZA), which confirmed plans to spend 148 billion USD annually on the energy transition, unlocking a 1 trillion USD pipeline for grid and storage expansion.

In Southeast Asia, the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank Group and ASEAN launched the ASEAN Power Grid Financing Initiative, pledging more than 12 billion USD to strengthen regional electricity connectivity.

Further commitments came from the Global Grid Catalyst (GGC), a philanthropy-backed initiative launched earlier this year with an initial 50 million USD and a goal to mobilise 200 million USD annually for modern grid development. At COP30, GGC said it will grant up to 7 million USD in 2026 to help mobilise much larger flows of investment in grids, and allocate an additional 2 million USD to a grids incubation fund for new ideas, capacity and collaborations. 

“Climate philanthropy now recognises that grids are the biggest bottleneck to rapid emissions cuts. We are committed to working with countries, civil society, industry and finance to expand and modernise the grids the world urgently needs. We welcome new countries joining the Grids and Storage Pledge and championing this agenda in the COP30 outcome. Yet, we are still not on track to meet the COP29 pledge, so we need faster implementation” said Anand R. Gopal, Founding Executive Director, Global Grids Catalyst. 

In the Americas, the Inter-American Development Bank Group launched a Power Transmission Acceleration Platform for Latin America and the Caribbean, backed by 15 million EUR from Germany to modernise and expand regional grid infrastructure.

Political momentum increased behind the COP29 Global Energy Storage and Grids Pledge, as California Governor Gavin Newsom confirmed the state’s endorsement. Five Brazilian states – Rio Grande do Norte, Paraíba, Pernambuco, Ceará and Espírito Santo – also signed on to the pledge.

COP30 CEO Ana Toni, IRENA and the governments of the UK and Germany endorsed the Green Grids Initiative’s Climate Finance Principles for Grids, a framework to guide public and private capital into transmission and distribution networks.

Brazil and the Green Grids Initiative established a high-level Coordinating Council to accelerate the expansion and resilience of the country’s power grids.

UK-based SSE plc announced a 33 billion GBP fully funded five-year programme to upgrade the country’s electricity infrastructure.

Bruce Douglas, CEO of the Global Renewables Alliance, underscored: “Despite these major milestones at COP30, a significant gap remains between what is needed and what is currently flowing – especially in emerging markets where investment is most urgently required. We need further decisive action from governments and development banks to unlock finance and embed clear targets for grids and storage into national and regional strategies. 

“Only then can we build the resilient, renewable-powered energy systems the world needs.”