Renewable Energy Target Setting

Authors: Ghislaine Kieffer (IRENA) and Toby D. Couture (E3 Analytics)

What are renewable energy targets? Why set a renewable energy target? How should they be designed and translated into specific policy instruments?

Renewable energy targets have become a defining feature of the global energy landscape. Some 164 countries around the world have adopted at least one type of renewable energy target as of mid-2015, up almost four-fold from 43 countries in 2005. Developing and emerging economies took on a leading role during the decade, accounting for 131 of the 164 with targets in place.

Renewable energy targets can take a wide range of forms and are often embedded into integrated sector-level resource plans, national renewable energy action plans, or broader national development plans. Renewable Energy Target Setting presents a global overview of the diversity of renewable energy targets and brings together insights from a wide range of countries from a policy-design perspective.

The report, produced by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), highlights the critical importance of definitions and specific design features suited to different objectives. It lays out a comprehensive framework, which can inform policy makers as they embark on the task of designing – or revising – their respective national or local renewable energy targets.