Scaling up renewable energy investment in emerging markets: challenges, risks and solutions

The IRENA Coalition for Action (Coalition) is an international network with a vision for its members to work together to advance renewable energy in order to drive the global energy transition in line with the Sustainable Development Goal on energy. Within the Coalition, the Business and Investors Group is a Working Group chaired by the Global Solar Council (GSC) and the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) aiming to provide a platform for renewable energy businesses and investors to discuss current challenges and agree upon solutions to put forward to policy makers.

This white paper outlines a discussion of the most significant challenges to the scale-up of renewable energy investment and development that the Coalition for Action Business and Investors Group members have encountered while delivering projects throughout the world. The paper additionally describes a selection of available tools and policies recommended by the Business and Investors Group to overcome these challenges.

The focus is on solar and wind as the two dominant, rapidly growing technologies in the power sector that are now competitive, but the analysis could apply to other power-producing technologies as well.