A coalition of prominent climate advocates has issued an open letter calling for universal access to affordable, clean solar energy by the end of the decade. Signed by figures including author Bill McKibben, former UN Climate Secretary Christiana Figueres, and Canada’s former Environment Minister Catherine McKenna, the letter urges governments, institutions, and the public to unite in providing electricity to the nearly one billion people currently without reliable access, as well as billions more burdened by expensive fossil fuels.
The appeal comes against a backdrop of intensifying climate disasters, including wildfires across Europe and glacial collapse in Nepal. With just over three years remaining until 2030, the realism of this target is being scrutinized by energy experts.
Despite the tight timeline, McKenna expressed optimism, noting that solar and renewable growth has exceeded previous projections. She highlighted that solar is now the cheapest form of electricity in history and is scaling faster than anticipated. This sentiment is supported by data from the global energy think tank Ember, which reports that solar power grew by a record 30% in 2025, its highest rate in eight years, and has increased more than tenfold since 2015.
Eicke Weber, a physicist and former director of Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems, emphasized that both the technology and the financing are available. He noted that battery costs have dropped in parallel with solar module prices, removing previous barriers to storage and reliability.
In 2025, renewable energy sources surpassed coal in the global electricity mix for the first time in a century, according to Ember’s analysis. However, substantial gaps remain. Global installed solar capacity currently stands at 3 terawatts, with approximately 655 million people still lacking electricity access. Weber stated that transitioning fully to renewables would require around 50TW of capacity, noting that current production abilities exceed current sales volumes.
McKenna pointed out that electrification rates in Sub-Saharan Africa must triple to achieve universal access by 2030. She argued that off-grid regions have the opportunity to leapfrog directly into clean technologies, bypassing the fossil fuel infrastructure that has driven global heating. She also pushed back against industry narratives suggesting solar is unreliable, contrasting it with the supply chain risks associated with transporting fossil fuels through critical chokepoints like the Strait of Hormuz.
Hans-Josef Fell, a pioneer behind Germany’s Renewable Energy Sources Act, argued that while the technical pathways exist, the necessary political and societal will is currently absent due to the dominance of fossil fuel interests in public debate. His think tank estimates that solar would need to provide 60-70% of global energy in a fully renewable system, supplemented by wind, hydro, and bioenergy.
Weber described the goal as requiring a “moonshot program” with serious political backing. While he suggested that countries like Germany could theoretically complete such a transition in two or three years if motivated, he estimated a global shift toward 80-90% renewable electricity would likely extend to 2040. Nevertheless, Fell concluded that if the global community tackles the issue properly, the 2030 target is achievable, and even reaching 90% of that goal would constitute a remarkable accomplishment.
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