2015 set new records for clean energy investment, installation and jobs globally, according to the latest Renewables Global Status Report published by REN21. Highlights include:

• 120 gigawatts of non-hydro renewable power capacity were installed worldwide, increasing the global total to a record high of 785 gigawatts.
  
• Record levels of investment - $286 billion - flowed to renewable power and fuels (excluding large hydro).

The green workforce also set a new record, rising 5% worldwide in 2015 to 8.1 million. Employment in the U.S. solar business grew 12 times faster than overall job creation, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency. There are now more jobs in solar than in oil, gas, and coal extraction in the U.S. (See below chart from Bloomberg).

Renewable power, led by wind and solar, attracted twice as much investment in 2015 as fossil fuels, according to data from Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

Factors driving this trend include the following.
 
1. Wealthy countries are phasing out coal, China's demand for coal is starting to flatten, and the rate of growth for coal-fired power in other developing countries is slowing.

2. Wind and solar costs have fallen dramatically due to economies of scale. Since 2000, the amount of global electricity produced by solar power has doubled seven times over, and wind power has doubled four times. Wind and solar now compete with fossil energy on an unsubsidized basis in many parts of the world. 

3. Wind and solar are technologies, not fuels. Thus, efficiency increases and prices fall over time. The price of batteries to store wind and solar power and smooth out the effects of intermittency is also falling.

4. Investment in oil and gas infrastructure is falling as prices for these commodities have tanked. While falling prices for fossil fuels are primarily due to oversupply, the transition to renewable power generation and the uptake of electric vehicles are contributing to a long-term shift by reducing demand for fossil fuels.

On February 12, 2016, energy ministers of the United States, Canada, and Mexico signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Climate Change and Energy Collaboration and launched a web platform that displays maps of North American energy infrastructure.

Per the MOU the three countries will collaborate and share information in six key areas:

• Sharing experience and knowledge in the development of reliable, resilient and low-carbon electricity grids;
• Modeling, deploying and accelerating innovation of clean energy technologies, including renewables;
• Exchanging information in order to improve energy efficiency for equipment, appliances, industries and buildings, including energy management systems;
• Exchanging information and promoting joint action to advance the deployment of carbon capture, use and storage;
• Identifying trilateral activities to further climate change adaptation and resilience; and, 
• Sharing best practices and seeking methods to reduce emissions from the oil and gas sector, including methane and black carbon.
  

In addition, certain North American energy information and maps are now gathered on one web-based platform - North American Cooperation on Energy Information - which includes:

• A first suite of static and interactive North American energy infrastructure maps;
  
• A combined North American energy outlook;
• Data tables and methodological guides to allow for the comparison of energy trade between the three countries; and,
• A glossary of terms and definitions available in each country’s official languages.

The collaboration may form the foundation of a continent-wide initiative on energy infrastructure, including electric car infrastructure, according to Canadian Energy Perspectives.

Global clean energy investment (excluding large hydro) totaled $329 billion in 2015, a new world record, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. This achievement is particularly impressive given the headwinds faced by the clean energy industry, including the plunge in fossil fuels prices and economic weakness in Europe. 

In a statement Michael Liebreich, chairman of the advisory board at Bloomberg New Energy Finance, said: “These figures are a stunning riposte to all those who expected clean energy investment to stall on falling oil and gas prices. Wind and solar power are now being adopted in many developing countries as a natural and substantial part of the generation mix: they can be produced more cheaply than often high wholesale power prices; they reduce a country’s exposure to expected future fossil fuel prices; and above all they can be built very quickly to meet unfulfilled demand for electricity. And it is very hard to see these trends going backwards, in the light of December’s Paris Climate Agreement.”
 
Preliminary figures indicate that wind and solar PV installations grew 30% worldwide in 2015 compared to 2014. The combined total of new wind (64 gigawatts) and solar (57 gigawatts) capacity accounted for around half of the net capacity added in all generation technologies (fossil fuel, nuclear and renewable) globally in 2015.

In December 2015, the U.S. Congress extending the Production Tax Credit for wind to 2019 and the Investment Tax Credit for solar to 2022.

The  package could produce about $73 billion in incremental wind and solar investment and 37 gigawatts of new wind and solar capacity — a 56% boost to the industry — over the 2016-21 period, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance estimates. Details on the extended residential renewable energy tax credits are here.

A growing number of companies and governments are aim­ing to achieve renewable electricity targets of 50%, 75%, or even 100%. For example, in 2015 alone, California established a 50% by 2030 renewable portfolio standard (RPS); Vermont a 75% RPS by 2032; and Hawaii a 100% RPS by 2045. Dozens of corporations are already procuring 100% of their electrons from renewables for their U.S. operations, including Apple, Intel, and Kohl’s.  A new report, Getting to 100, published by CleanEdge, assesses and analyzes the full suite of options available for aggressively expanding corporate and government use of clean energy, including onsite renewables, community solar, utility-scale renewables, renewable energy credits (RECs), green energy tariffs, and third party clean-energy offerings. 

At the Climate Summit for Local Leaders held in Paris on December 4, 2015, more than 1,000 city and regional officials issued the Paris City Hall Declaration committing to "support ambitious long-term climate goals such as a transition to 100% renewable energy in our communities, or a 80% greenhouse gas emissions reduction by 2050." More here.

In Paris, Indigenous peoples called on world leaders to keep fossil fuels in the ground, respect human rights, and transition to 100% clean renewable energy.

A coalition of Indigenous leaders and activists from North and South America gathered at a press conference on Sunday 12/6/15 to present three key documents on climate change.

The documents, proposed by Indigenous leaders from the Arctic to the Amazon, on Sunday 12/6/15 include:

• the first international treaty between Indigenous women of the Americas,
  
• a call for international recognition and protection of sacred territories, and
  
• a declaration cosigned by more than 150 indigenous leaders, environmental, and climate justice organizations that urges world leaders to keep fossil fuels in the ground.

Indigenous leaders and their allies urged world governments to include the rights of native communities in the text of the international treaty expected to come out of the U.N. Climate Summit in Paris.

The potential climate impacts of new fossil fuel infrastructure -- crude by rail terminals -- has galvanized Native American tribes and community groups as well as national and international activists. The proposed terminals in Oregon, Washington and British Columbia would load fossil fuels onto ships and transport them to markets in North America and, potentially, other parts of the world. More here.

The report, Tracking Emissions: The Climate Impact of the Proposed Crude-by-Rail Terminals in the Pacific Northwest, was issued by Sightline Institute and Oil Change International.

A transformation of power grids towards reliance on mainly renewable energy sources has begun. The Age of Renewable Power, a report from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), provides a framework for developing a national roadmap to guide each country’s power sector transformation.