Accelerating electrification powered by renewables must be a priority for the decade to 2035. The World Energy Transition Outlook 2026 (WETO), released by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) calls for system-wide reforms and sets an actionable agenda for secure, affordable, and competitive energy in this decade and beyond.
Accelerating electrification powered by renewables must be a priority for the decade to 2035. A genuine energy transition means progressively displacing fossil-fuel systems, not simply adding new power capacity to an unchanged energy mix.
Electrification with renewables, combined with more efficient technologies and sustainable fuels, can drive this shift by scaling clean power, unlocking energy efficiency gains, and meeting rising energy demand.
IRENA’s World Energy Transition Outlook 2026 (WETO) sets out urgent energy system reforms to realign the global energy transition with the 1.5°C-compatible pathway following the current overshoot of temperature caused by carbon emissions.
While renewable additions continue to set records in 2025, grid enhancements fail to keep pace, and energy demand keeps surging rapidly. Furthermore, energy efficiency improvements remain significantly below the required rate and fail to offset the growing power demand.
Consequently, electrification and renewables must accelerate dramatically. Global installed renewable power would need to grow from 5.2 TW today to around 38.2 TW by 2050, while electricity’s share of final energy consumption rises to 35 percent by 2035 and over 50 percent by 2050.
More than 80 percent of electricity would be supplied by solar and wind by mid-century.
In addition, without scaling up energy efficiency, grids, storage and system flexibility, these critical cornerstones risk becoming bottlenecks to the global energy transition.
The global energy transition is under stress. Record growth in renewables is not enough on its own: energy efficiency is falling short, grids are struggling to keep pace, and global energy demand continues to surge. We cannot deliver the transition by simply adding renewables to an unchanged energy system. We need reforms to build the infrastructure of a new energy system — one that is electrified, efficient, flexible and powered by renewables, said Francesco La Camera, Director-General of IRENA.
Strong economic case
He added that “electrification, grids, storage, flexibility and energy efficiency are not merely supporting elements at the margins of this transformation; they are its backbone. The central question is how rapidly we can deploy these solutions together, at the scale required to keep the transition aligned with 1.5°C while ensuring energy security, affordability, competitiveness and broader social acceptance.”
WETO 2026 also points to a strong economic case. Under IRENA’s 1.5° C scenario, the world’s economy would grow by 1.1 percent every year above business as usual, translating into cumulative gains for societies of around US$46 trillion by 2050.
Renewable energy jobs could rise more than fivefold over the same period, up from just over 16 million today. And as emerging electricity markets become more cost-competitive, electricity competitiveness could lead to 15 percent lower end-user power prices by 2050.
But delivering the transition would require a significant increase in investment. Whilst the main driver for these gains, cumulative annual investment would have to reach around US$10.3 trillion between 2026 and 2050, with most additions in renewable power, grids, flexibility and end-use electrification.
The quality of the transition will matter as much as its speed. Our analysis shows that accelerated decarbonisation can strengthen investment, productivity, employment and welfare. Affordability, social protection and fair access to economic opportunities must be built into implementation from the outset to sustain public acceptance and ensure that the benefits of the transition are broadly shared, Francesco La Camera said.
An actionable agenda
The central task for governments is therefore to manage the transformation in an orderly way that safeguards reliability, affordability and energy security while accelerating the deployment of clean alternatives.
The new report sets an actionable agenda and identifies seven priorities for action over the coming decade, from integrated energy and market planning and country-tailored roadmaps to modernising grids, strengthening industrial and investment strategies, advancing social and environmental policies to maximise benefits and deepening international cooperation.
Policy makers have a critical responsibility to steer the transition. If well managed, the transition away from fossil fuels can support, rather than constrain, economic development by boosting competitiveness, resilience, public health, and long-term prosperity.
