Planning for Climate Coalition launched at COP28: Fast and fair permitting for renewable energy and green hydrogen must halve timelines by 2030

^{4 December 2023}

Planning for Climate Coalition launched at COP28: Fast and fair permitting for renewable energy and green hydrogen must halve timelines by 2030

A global coalition of leading governments, companies and NGOs launched a new coalition committed to fast and fair permitting at COP28 in Dubai on 4 December 2023.

The coalition calls on governments, industry and civil society to work together to urgently speed up and streamline permitting processes for renewable energy and green hydrogen, while embedding rigorous and inclusive community engagement practices.

Speaking at the launch:

Ditte Juul Jørgensen, Director General for Energy, European Commission said: “We need to get much better at permitting which stands in the way as a significant delaying factor to the energy transition. Lack of digitisation and administrative capacity at the local level are all challenges.”

Joan Groizard, Director General, Institute for the Diversification and Saving of Energy of Spain said: “We need to turn the excellent practices out there [on planning and permitting] into the mainstream” 

Maarten Wetselaar, CEO, CEPSA said: Climate challenge could fail not due to lack of capital, technology or behaviour but due to permitting…we need benchmarking and accountability so that we are able to say “you are holding back energy transition”…

Morten Dyrholm, Group SVP, MarCom, Sustainability & Public Affairs, Vestas said: We have created a monster which stands in the way of the energy transition. Extreme bureaucratic wrangling, untransparent consultation schemes and reviews are delaying the green transition”

Sharan Burrow, Former General Secretary, International Trade Union Confederation said: The real lesson for planning is to focus on involving everyone from the beginning. People want choices, inclusion and transparency.

The coalition launched today builds on the nine-point plan for fast and fair permitting presented earlier this year by leading voices including Teresa Ribera (Minister for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge of Spain), Mads Nipper (CEO of Ørsted), Ignacio Sánchez Galán (Executive Chairman of Iberdrola), Nangula Uaandja (CEO, Namibia Investment Promotion and Development Board) and Lord Adair Turner (Former Chair of the UK Financial Services Authority and Chair of the Energy Transitions Commission).

The coalition will focus on implementing the nine-point plan and reducing permitting timeframes by half by 2030:

1. Innovating to shorten permitting timeframes.
2. Streamlining permitting processes in a transparent and predictable manner.
3. Engaging communities from the outset.
4. Deploying carefully designed and regulated benefit-sharing mechanisms.
5. Enabling strong policies and safeguards to limit environmental impacts.
6. Accelerating grid infrastructure build-out and integration.
7. Planning and using land strategically.
8. Strengthening institutional capacity at central and local levels.
9. Averting technological risks by adopting rigorous standards.

The coalition will:

• Work collectively to streamline and speed up permitting for renewable energy and green hydrogen projects while maintaining high standards of community participation. 
• Establish permitting benchmarks and review progress in shortening permitting timeframes and strengthening community engagement practices.
• Support policy makers and permitting authorities in implementing recommendations and good practices through peer exchange and national-level task forces.

The coalition is receiving initial support from CEPSA, HyStor, TES and Vestas and is an initiative of the Global Renewables Alliance and the Green Hydrogen Organisation.

For further information, contact Ines Marques ines.marques@gh2.org