Workers use heavy machinery to sift through coal at the Adani Power company thermal power plant, India’s first supercritical 660 MW unit. (Photo by SAM PANTHAKY/AFP/Getty Images)

Here’s something to keep in mind when you encounter a story detailing the fast rate of growth of renewable energy somewhere: It’s not good enough.

Big change is afoot, and some learned observers are less pessimistic than others,  but there’s little mistaking what a desperate situation the world is in. The latest reminder comes in the IEA and World Bank’s new progress report on the Sustainable Energy for All Initiative. SE4ALL is about bringing life-enhancing energy to people who don’t have it, and doing it with the emphasis on efficiency and renewables. How’s it going?

Not good enough.

Progress in reducing global primary energy intensity over the tracking period was substantial, though still only two-thirds of the pace needed to reach the SE4ALL objective.

The growth of renewable energy final consumption continued to accelerate in recent years, but to achieve the SE4ALL objective, the rate of progress will need to increase over 50 percent.

Today’s investment flows of $400 billion a year would need to triple to achieve the necessary pace of progress. – Highlights from Progress Toward Sustainable Energy