The International Energy Agency is throwing its weight behind efforts to accelerate clean energy investment as global leaders gather in the Amazonian city of Belém for the COP30 climate summit, seeking to bridge the yawning gap between climate pledges and tangible progress.

The IEA has been working alongside Brazil's COP30 presidency on implementation strategies, co-hosting dialogues in Brussels, Addis Ababa and New York, and serving as secretariat for initiatives on renewables, energy efficiency and energy access. The agency's involvement comes as the UN warns that current commitments point towards catastrophic warming of up to 2.8°C this century, far exceeding the 1.5°C target enshrined in the Paris Agreement.

"Current climate-action commitments still point to climate breakdown," UN Secretary-General António Guterres said this week, calling on countries to "step up and speed up" efforts. Global greenhouse gas emissions climbed 2.3% in 2024 to reach a record 58bn metric tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, with the G20 economies accounting for 77% of the total.

“Nations have had three attempts to deliver promises made under the Paris Agreement, and each time they have landed off target,” said Inger Andersen, Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP.) “While national climate plans have delivered some progress, it is nowhere near fast enough, which is why we still need unprecedented emissions cuts in an increasingly tight window, with an increasingly challenging geopolitical backdrop.”

The fortnight-long summit, which opens on November 10, aims to shift focus from ambition-setting to delivery, translating outcomes from last year's global stocktake into concrete measures. Central to those efforts is the challenge of mobilising capital for emissions-intensive sectors and developing economies that struggle to attract conventional green finance.

Transition finance gains momentum

The IEA has published new analysis suggesting that between $400bn and $500bn annually could be channelled through "transition finance" mechanisms over the next decade, a framework designed to support high-emitting activities as they shift towards sustainable practices aligned with long-term climate goals.

Current flows remain modest, but the agency has identified cement, steel and critical minerals as sectors offering particularly strong potential. In cement and steel, transition finance could support interim measures such as energy efficiency improvements and waste heat recovery ahead of crucial reinvestment decisions by 2035. For critical minerals, it could unlock projects that expand clean energy supply chains whilst mitigating environmental risks.

The approach also extends to natural gas, where funding could reduce methane emissions and lower the carbon footprint of liquefaction under transparent, time-bound plans aligned with national decarbonisation strategies.

"Interest in transition finance has grown, due especially to mounting concerns about energy security and emissions reductions," the Paris-based energy watchdog said in its report, warning that financial flows from advanced economies to emerging and developing nations must expand to prevent "financial carbon leakage".

African energy security in focus

The agency has intensified its engagement with African nations, where the mix of climate vulnerability, infrastructure constraints and rapid electrification poses acute energy security challenges. The IEA recently launched its first energy policy review of Mozambique, a country that nearly doubled grid connections between 2017 and 2022 yet still leaves more than half its population without access to electricity.

Just 7% of Mozambicans use modern cooking solutions, despite the country's significant untapped hydropower, solar and natural gas resources. The review, prepared in partnership with Mozambique's government, recommends a blended finance needs assessment and fiscal incentives to accelerate access projects, suggesting the country could emerge as a regional energy hub.

The IEA has also hosted training initiatives in Ghana and webinars with the African Energy Commission to strengthen energy security data systems across the continent, where fragmented information hampers effective policymaking.

Efficiency measures gain urgency

With global electricity consumption projected to rise 60% by 2030, driven partly by growing use of household appliances, the IEA is pressing for stricter implementation of energy efficiency standards. Evidence suggests well-designed policies such as minimum energy performance standards and energy labels can halve consumption.

In Latin America, where countries including Brazil and Mexico have implemented efficiency policies since the 1980s, stricter enforcement could save nearly 40 terawatt hours of electricity from appliances by 2030. The IEA and the Super-Efficient Equipment and Appliance Deployment Initiative have launched a free online course to equip policymakers with tools to design impactful policies.

The agency has also been advancing collaboration through the Breakthrough Agenda, launched at COP26, which now comprises over 150 initiatives. Its latest annual report emphasises that global supply chains present opportunities for emerging markets, whilst strong international collaboration is needed to successfully diversify supply chains.

"Partnerships with advanced economies can accelerate clean technology manufacturing, which benefits all economies via greater supply chain diversification," the report states. "These partnerships also help to support both development and growth in emerging markets."

As delegates settle into negotiations in Belém, UNEP has warned that only 60 parties to the Paris Agreement — representing 63% of global emissions — had submitted new nationally determined contributions for 2035 by the end of September. The planned US withdrawal from the accord in 2026, spearheaded by the Trump administration, is projected to erase roughly 0.1°C of progress.

"The path to 1.5 degrees is narrow – but open," Guterres said. "Let us accelerate to keep that path alive for people, for the planet, and for our common future."