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It will take a ‘cyclopedic effort’ to achieve the headline-grabbing pledge on renewable power made at the Dubai climate summit, the head of the international renewables body has warned.

On Saturday, various leaders signed up to a raft of promises on energy at COP28, including 118 countries that joined a commitment to triple renewable power by 2030.

But today the head of the intergovernmental renewables body, IRENA, said it will be hard to achieve because the world had left it so late, while others cautioned it was only voluntary.

“The fact that we have delayed strong action, has put us now in the emergency, Francesco La Camera, director general of United Arab Emirates-based IRENA, told Sky News in an interview.

“We are proud,” added the IRENA boss, but “naturally this means a huge, cyclopedic effort.”

“I always made this a stupid example that says that it is like the Tom Cruise movie, Mission Impossible.

“We have to see if the government will come to be the Tom Cruise of this challenge.”

However, in recent years renewables have plummeted in costs and soared in capacity, both beyond expectations.

These trends have been driven in some part by COP climate summits sending signals to markets, but were accelerated by the energy crisis sparked by the war in Ukraine.

The world is already on course to double clean power like solar and wind by 2030, if current government policies are fulfilled, according to analysis by climate thinktank Ember.

“Tripling requires a bending of the curve,” said Ember’s Dave Jones.

It would mean means growing annual installations by 17% per year to 2030 – “which is what we have already achieved on average from 2016 to 2023,” he added.

Francesco La Camera said tripling is “doable” but difficult, and would require new policies to address demand and financing for fossil fuels as well.

If policies “still continue to demand [fossil fuels], they will arrive”, said Mr La Camera.

Infrastructure is a problem plaguing many countries – including the UK – that are trying to ramp up renewable power, with grids struggling to keep up with the number of new electricity projects coming online. More ports and pipelines are desperately needed to transport the power, too.

Joab Okanda, pan Africa senior advocacy advisor at Christian Aid, said the announcement is “encouraging, but it’s not enough.”

The pledges are voluntary measures joined by some countries, but are not a part of the formal COP process.

“We need to see this translate into the real text,” he said, referring to the final treaty that all countries will sign up to at the end of the COP negotiations.

Diplomats are now attempting to translate the messages sent by leaders who jetted in for the start of COP into a draft version of the final text.

Tensions are simmering over whether fossil fuels, the primary cause of climate change, should be name-checked, a highly sensitive issue among major producers.

Watch The Climate Show with Tom Heap on Saturday and Sunday at 3pm and 7.30pm on Sky News, on the Sky News website and app, and on YouTube and Twitter.

The show investigates how global warming is changing our landscape and highlights solutions to the crisis.

Climate leaders have reacted with fury after the controversial head of COP28 claimed there was “no science” to suggest phasing out fossil fuels will help limit global warming to 1.5C.

The president of the Dubai climate change summit, Sultan al Jaber, made the comments during an ill-tempered online question and answer session, a video obtained by The Guardian has revealed.

The 2015 Paris Agreement established the target, which aims to limit the world’s average surface temperature to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. Global temperatures have already increased by more than 1.28C since 1880, it is estimated.

The limit is seen as crucial to stave off the more dangerous impacts of climate change – with reducing or eliminating harmful emissions widely seen as the best way of achieving the goal.

However during the event, hosted by campaign group She Changes Climate, Mr al Jaber hit out at scientists after fellow panellist Mary Robinson, a former UN climate envoy, said nations needed to commit to phasing out fossil fuel usage.

He replied: “there is no science out there, or no scenario out there, that says the phase-out of fossil fuel is what’s going to achieve 1.5C…

“A phase-out of fossil fuel, in my view, is inevitable, it is essential. But we need to be real, serious and pragmatic about it.”

Mr al Jaber added later: “Please help me, show me the roadmap for a phase-out of fossil fuel that will allow for sustainable socioeconomic development, unless you want to take the world back into caves.”

Read more:
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Video of the question and answer session, which took place on 21 November, emerged on Sunday only days after UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres called on world leaders to cut emissions to help “save” the planet.

He told the summit on Friday: “The 1.5C limit is only possible if we ultimately stop burning all fossil fuels. Not reduce. Not abate.”

Scientists and campaign groups reacted with anger to Mr al Jaber’s remarks.

Teresa Anderson, from ActionAid International, described his comments as “completely divorced from the reality of hundreds of millions of people on the frontline of climate catastrophe.”

She added: “Communities whose lives are already being destroyed by floods, droughts, and cyclones have a different view on whether a fossil-fuelled future represents progress or poverty.

“With climate disasters worsening with each year, his comments fly in the face of all science and offer up another lifeline for climate-wrecking fossil fuel industries.”

Mohamed Adow, director of Power Shift Africa, said: “The recent comments from the COP28 president show how entrenched he is in fossil fuel fantasy and is clearly determined that this COP doesn’t do anything to harm the interests of the oil and gas industry…

“For the people in Africa already dying because of climate change, a fossil fuel phase-out date in the future is already too late. We need to ensure we have a date locked in here at COP28 so that at least the next generation has a chance to survive.”

Bill Hare, the chief executive of Climate Analytics, also told The Guardian: “This is an extraordinary, revealing, worrying and belligerent exchange. ‘Sending us back to caves’ is the oldest of fossil fuel industry tropes: it’s verging on climate denial.”

A spokesperson for COP28 said: “The COP president was unwavering in saying reaching 1.5C involves action across a number of areas and sectors. The COP President is clear that phasing down and out of fossil fuels is inevitable and that we must keep 1.5C within reach…

“The COP president is focused on working with parties to deliver a plan that will deliver maximum transition and minimal disruption for everyone in the world.

“He has repeatedly communicated our position on fossil fuels and invited all parties to work together and come up with solutions that can achieve alignment, common ground and consensus.”

It is the latest controversy to hit Mr al Jaber, who is also chief executive of the state-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Company.

Critics have questioned his suitability for the role, due to his background. He has also faced allegations that the UAE wanted to use the summit to strike new oil and gas deals – claims he has denied and described as “false”.

The summit, which opened last week in Dubai, is scheduled to run until 12 December.