World leaders gather for the UN climate summit (COP30) in Belém, Brazil, amid concerns about the slow progress in cutting global carbon emissions. Ten years into the historic Paris climate agreement, we are off track to meet its core objective, to keep global warming well below 2°C, relative to pre-industrial levels.

Yet there are glimmers of hope, and none more important than the astounding progress on renewable energy. Renewables are now so cheap that the clean energy transition is no longer an economic burden, it is a momentous opportunity.

Climate change campaigners tend to see renewables as an environmental imperative, an effective way of cutting emissions. They are that, of course. But they are also a powerful engine of investment, jobs and growth. They are reshaping the global economy. In my team’s new report, we lay out the evidence.

The first economic dividend of renewables is inclusion. Access to affordable energy remains a critical sustainable development goal, which shapes everything from education to health to women’s empowerment. Distributed renewables—from solar home systems to mini-grids—are our best chance yet of bringing affordable energy to all.

Across Africa, Asia and Latin America, renewable energy entrepreneurs are doing what national grids have struggled to do: reaching remote villages and replacing polluting diesel generators with clean, reliable power.

Because of its modularity, renewable electricity can be built out fast, expanded flexibly and maintained locally. Renewable energy firms are combining these technical advantages with new business models that make renewables more accessible (for example, through pay-as-you-go models) and keep benefits in the local community (for example, by offering energy services like cold storage, phone charging and water pumping, as well as electricity).

Investment, jobs and growth

If inclusion is the first dividend, investment is the second. Every dollar invested in renewables delivers more economic bang than a dollar spent on fossil fuels. The International Monetary Fund estimates that clean energy investments generate about 1.5 times their cost in economic activity, while fossil fuels yield less than one-for-one. Renewables do not just pay back; they pay forward through spending on supply chains and local wages.

The numbers are staggering. Between 2017 and 2022, climate finance flows into the 100 largest developing countries (excluding China) boosted their GDP by a combined US$1.2 trillion (£0.9 trillion)—the equivalent of 2%–5% of GDP for most nations. In Brazil, the host of COP30, renewable investments raised GDP by US$128 billion over those six years, according to our report.

Climate finance flows are still insufficient. To increase them, we need more concessional funding, more risk guarantees and more partnerships between governments, investors and local communities.

In the Dominican Republic, a blend of policy reform, clear incentives and blended finance has helped the country mobilize over US$6.5 billion in clean energy investment and double its renewables capacity in just three years.

The energy transition is often painted as a jobs killer, but the evidence says otherwise. Intergovernmental organizations project that there will be 43 million clean energy jobs by 2050, far outstripping those lost in fossil fuels.

For our report, we took a closer look at the jobs market in South Africa. For 12 months we collected data from job adverts and found a striking fact: clean energy jobs pay 16% more on average than all other advertised roles. For the most part the higher wages reflect the fact that clean energy jobs are high-skilled jobs, which require experience, training and problem-solving skills.

The high skills requirements are a challenge as well as a boon. Taking full advantage of the clean jobs revolution will require proactive skills development, both in the classroom and on the job. But for the young labor forces of many developing countries, the message is clear: renewables are not just a climate strategy, they are a job opportunity.

Perhaps the most underappreciated economic benefit of renewables concerns productivity. Cheap, efficient energy is the lifeblood of industrial growth. Renewable energy is now much cheaper than fossil fuels, particularly when factoring in what is lost when turning energy (say, car fuel) into usable services (propulsion).

We calculated that with a rapid conversion to renewables, energy-sector productivity could double by 2050, compared to both current levels and a fossil fuel future. Since energy is such a ubiquitous input to all other economic activities, this has significant economy-wide benefits. For some developing countries, the GDP boost could be as high as 9%–12%—simply from having more efficient energy services.

These productivity gains are not evenly distributed. For once, it could be developing countries that benefit most. Industrialized countries grew rich on the back of cheap and abundant energy. In a low-carbon economy, it will be sun-rich developing countries that have the cheapest, most abundant sources of energy. This critical shift in comparative advantage could finally help to narrow the global prosperity gap.

At COP30, leaders are debating climate targets, finance mechanisms and transition timelines. But they should also recognize this deeper reality: renewables are not a drag on growth but its new engine. In a world anxious about growth and prosperity, the clean energy transition is an economic strategy as much as an environmental one.

The challenge, as our report reminds us, is to share these gains equitably. Without fair benefit-sharing the transition risks repeating the inequities of the fossil fuel era. But get it right, and renewables can power not just cleaner economies, but fairer ones.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

A new, low-cost method for capturing carbon dioxide emissions from power plants and industrial facilities relies on a simple physical phenomenon—the same one that causes bubbles to fizz when popping a bottle of Champagne or cracking open a bottle of seltzer.

The process, called pressure-induced carbon capture (PICC), uses water and pressure to pull carbon dioxide out of exhaust gases before it reaches the atmosphere, offering a cleaner and far less expensive alternative to traditional chemical methods.

Co-inventors Dr. Mark Holtzapple, professor of chemical engineering at Texas A&M University, and Jonathan Feinstein of ExcelThermic Enterprises have filed patents for licensing the technology to power plants, hydrogen facilities, cement kilns, steel blast furnaces and other industrial emitters worldwide. Holtzapple said PICC is a practical solution to an urgent problem because fossil fuel combustion—which releases greenhouse gases into the atmosphere—remains an important component of the global energy mix.

“Our invention is a cost-effective way to address one of the greatest challenges facing humanity,” Holtzapple said. “We can capture carbon dioxide from flue gas using only water and pressure, which makes the process simple, clean and less expensive than competing technologies.”

Traditional carbon capture systems rely on strong chemicals called amines that bind with carbon dioxide to remove it from exhaust gases. Amines struggle to pull more than 90% of the carbon dioxide out of the flue gas, Holtzapple said. Also, the amines are expensive and degrade when exposed to flue gases. Furthermore, permitting 10% of the carbon dioxide to escape into the environment is no longer tenable, he said.

In contrast, PICC uses physical absorption. Because PICC uses no chemical bonds, carbon dioxide pops back out of the water at reduced pressures just as easily as it dissolves in water at high pressure.

“Everybody knows that high-pressure carbon dioxide dissolves in water, and that when you open a bottle of Coca-Cola or beer you see that carbon dioxide bubble back out,” Holtzapple said. Once released, the carbon dioxide can be safely stored or utilized.

How the system works

In operation, flue gas from combusting coal, natural gas or biomass—like forest waste, crop residues or municipal solid waste—is first cooled and compressed. The high-pressure gas is then piped into an absorption column, where cold water flows downward while the gas moves upward through a structured packing that maximizes contact between the two streams. As the nearly clean gas reaches the top of the column, it contacts fresh water entering at the top. There, the last traces of carbon dioxide dissolve into the water, with clean gas releasing into the environment.

The water exiting the bottom of the column contains dissolved carbon dioxide and is transferred to a series of vessels, each operating at lower and lower pressures, where the carbon dioxide progressively bubbles out. Holtzapple said the released carbon dioxide is then ready for compression and injection into underground geological formations, such as saline aquifers, where it is permanently stored.

A lower cost path to near-total capture

Economic analyses show that PICC can capture and compress 99% of carbon dioxide emissions for $26 per metric ton. Other current technologies capture about 90% and cost $50 to $100 per metric ton, Holtzapple said.

Additionally, by adding a small amount of lime—an alkali—to the water, PICC captures 100% of carbon dioxide for an average cost less than $28 per metric ton. At that level of capture, even the carbon dioxide from the combustion air is removed, Holtzapple said.

“Without adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, PICC allows us to use abundant fossil fuels on which our civilization is built. Furthermore, by coupling PICC to biomass combustion, we can remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere cost effectively,” he said.

California added 1,200 megawatts of battery energy storage to its electrical grid over the last six months, further building on its nation-leading capacity and pushing the state closer to its clean energy goals, officials said on Nov. 13.

Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the latest milestone while making the rounds at the United Nations Conference of the Parties climate summit in Belém, Brazil, where he is touting the state’s international climate leadership amid the notable absence of officials from the Trump administration.

With the latest additions, the Golden State has reached 16,942 megawatts of available battery storage—about one-third of the estimated capacity needed to reach its goal of 100% clean energy by 2045.

Battery energy storage systems capture excess wind and solar power and push it onto the grid during hours of peak demand, or when the sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing.

Newsom used the announcement as an opportunity to swipe at President Donald Trump, who has focused heavily on the growth of fossil fuels such as oil, gas and coal while simultaneously slashing funding for renewable energy projects in California and across the U.S.

“Donald Trump’s reckless energy agenda puts China first and America last—letting Beijing seize the global clean energy economy and the good-paying jobs, manufacturing, and economic prosperity that come with it,” the governor said in a statement. “California won’t stand by and watch.”

While China continues to burn fossil fuels, the country is breaking global records with its investments in renewable energy and battery storage. In 2024, China commissioned 37 gigawatts of battery storage, more than the combined additions of the U.S. and Europe, according to the energy think tank Ember.

But battery storage has also been transformative for California, helping the state avoid rolling blackouts and urgent calls for energy conservation, known as Flex Alerts, in the last several years. California now has more installed battery capacity than any other jurisdiction on the planet except for China, according to Newsom.

“We now dominate,” he said at a climate investors event in São Paulo before heading to Belém.

Experts say the state’s gains are impressive. The U.S. has about 37 gigawatts of total operating battery capacity, nearly half of which is in California, said Maia Leroy, founder of the energy consulting firm Lumenergy LLC.

“California is claiming a huge victory here,” Leroy said. She said the state’s capacity of 16,942 megawatts—or 16.9 gigawatts—is enough to power about 13 million homes for four hours, the typical duration of a battery.

The surge in storage is meeting with even faster growth of solar in the state. Together, solar plus batteries have eliminated more than 37% of fossil gas use on the state’s main grid, the California Independent System Operator, in just the last two years, according to Mark Z. Jacobson, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University.

“That is an enormous amount of batteries,” Jacobson said.

Energy storage is one of many ways California is hoping to stand out at this year’s COP summit. Representatives from the state—including Newsom, California Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot and Air Resources Board Chair Lauren Sanchez—have also entered into several partnerships and agreements with other regions and nations this week.

Among them is the Global Energy Storage and Grids Pledge, an initiative started at last year’s COP conference that sets a global target of deploying 1,500 gigawatts of energy storage and building about 15.5 million miles of new transmission infrastructure by 2030. California became the first subnational entity to join the pledge, which has been backed by more than 100 countries and organizations.

The pledge is a good start, but the world needs more than just storage and transmission, Jacobson said.

“California is moving faster than the U.S. as a whole, but to really make inroads, California needs to also electrify transport, industry and buildings as fast as it is building batteries, while growing offshore wind, utility solar, rooftop solar and enhanced geothermal,” he said.

The state is working toward those goals, including pushing forward with a major offshore wind project that lost nearly half a billion dollars in federal funding from the Trump administration this year.

Other agreements signed at COP so far this year include joint partnerships and memoranda of understanding with Colombia, Chile, Nigeria, the Brazilian state of Pará and the German state of Baden-Württemberg on issues such as wildfire prevention and response, sustainable urban transportation and greenhouse gas emission reductions.

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