According to a report released by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) on Monday, the Middle East and North African (MENA) region would need to spend around $148 billion each year till 2050 to mitigate climate change.
The report by IRENA revealed that the MENA region needs to invest $18 billion in renewables, $96 billion in energy efficiency, $5 billion in the electrification of heat and transport, $23 billion in power grids and flexibility, and $6 billion in areas like electrolysers for hydrogen production, biofuel supply, and carbon capture and storage to help the region meet the standards set by the Paris Agreement.
The IRENA report said, “A climate-safe future calls for the scale-up, and redirection, of investment to clean energy technologies. Fossil-fuel investments need to be shifted to renewables and energy efficiency instead, while subsidies to fossil fuels must be phased out.”
The report further revealed that the region would create 1.51 million jobs in the renewable sector compared to 78 million lost in the fossil fuel sector.
Globally, spending in the renewable sector should be around $3.2 trillion until 2050 to help the world reduce carbon emission as per the Paris Agreement.
Earlier this year, Saudi Arabia revealed that the kingdom will invest more than $30 billion in the kingdom’s renewable energy sector by 2025 in order to diversify the energy mix.
The planned investment in renewable energy is also a part of Saudi Arabia’s plan to boost its economic diversification programme. Over the years, Saudi Arabia has relied heavily on crude oil to fuel its electricity needs.