President Joe Biden’s move to rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement and rolling back of environmental polices withdrawn during the Trump era has brought the country back to the fight against global warming and climate change. With emissions from electricity generation having formed more than 31% of the overall emissions in 2019, the return to the Paris Agreement is extremely welcome. Furthermore, the reversal of numerous anti-environmental and coal-friendly regulations – along with an optimistic target of making the electricity sector carbon neutral by 2035 – might just see an expedited rate of renewable energy (RE) expansion, says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

Ankit Mathur, Practice Head at GlobalData, comments: “While the RE segment did grow by almost 9% during the Trump tenure, Biden’s election pitch set the scene for a speedy renewable growth trajectory. Meanwhile, the executive orders annulling the previous RE expansion has further strengthened the new government’s strong intention to develop RE technologies with a massive push to curb the emissions, achieving carbon neutrality.”

According to GlobalData, this move could improve the growth momentum for the renewables in the US power mix, which currently comprises 27% renewable capacity. This share is likely to reach around 45% by 2030. Solar photovoltaics (PV) and wind are likely to play a key role in the US power transition towards sustainability and carbon neutrality, likely to represent close to 35% of the capacity mix by 2030. Furthermore, the development will be strengthened still by benefits brought about by the new pro-climate policy announcements and curbs on the carbon intensive sectors.

Mathur adds, “Rolling back climate-negative policies would mean greater growth impetus for the RE sector to attain carbon neutrality for the power sector, and then for the US economy. However, hurdle-free acceptance and implementation of these climate-friendly policies and targets is the key to making up for lost time – while also attaining the optimistic target of restricting the carbon emissions to net-zero.”