Offshore wind capacity is expected to grow by 18.4 GW in 2023, a record, with China accounting for over half of this total. By 2030, the annual total will reach 45.7 GW, mainly due to the mature markets of China, the UK, Germany and the Netherlands, but emerging markets such as the US, Taiwan, France, South Korea, Poland and Japan will also make significant contributions. From 2031 to 2035, the report says that installations will average 45.6 GW per year, peaking at 48.2 GW in 2035.

After reaching an all-time high globally in 2022, CO2 emissions from power generation will stay steady through 2025. While the EU’s natural gas-fired power generation is forecast to fall, growth in the Middle East will partly offset this. Declines in coal-fired generation in Europe and the Americas will likely be matched by a rise in Asia-Pacific. More than 70% of the increase in global electricity demand through 2025 is to come from China, India and Southeast Asia. However, considerable uncertainties remain over China as it emerges from Covid restrictions.

Evidence has emerged linking supply chains for renewable energy products to modern slavery and human rights abuses, says a new report by the Clean Energy Council of Australia and law firm Norton Rose Fulbright. Abuses most often occur in the later tiers of the supply chain and are hard to document. The main points of exposure include the manufacture of components and the extraction of raw materials. In some instances, such as producing polysilicon, a key component in solar panels, the primary market that uses the product linked to modern slavery is renewable energy. In other cases, renewable energy is just one of many end users.