The prevalence of renewable projects paired with batteries could increase by more than 450% across Europe by 2030 in response to grid congestion, negative power prices and rising curtailment, according to a report by Aurora Energy Research. The consultancy says Europe's co-located renewable capacity reached 6.3GW in 2025, with solar-plus-storage projects making up more than 60% of deployments. Meanwhile, more than 1,600GW of renewable and storage capacity is waiting for grid connections. Aurora expects a large number of planned projects to come online within five years, with Spain, the UK and Germany leading in installed capacity, and warns that curtailment could rise from more than 10 terawatt hours in 2024 to 33 terawatt hours by 2030.

The European Investment Bank has approved nearly €2bn in funding for clean energy projects across Europe as part of an overall €10bn financing package. The clean energy funds will support offshore wind in Germany, solar power in Italy, faster renewable adoption by Austrian firms, heating-efficiency upgrades in Latvia and grid expansion in the Netherlands. A further €8bn will go to urban regeneration, transport and corporate investment. The European Investment Fund will also help catalyse finance for small and medium-sized enterprises and start-ups through guarantees, securitisation and equity.

A shortfall of between $100bn and $200bn is preventing energy innovations in the United States from making the shift from prototype to commercial scale, according to an analysis by the Council on Foreign Relations. While insurers, catalytic philanthropists, customer demand guarantees and public programmes could help de-risk investments and encourage inflows, the analysis argues that no single solution will work across such varied technologies and that the withdrawal of support by the Trump administration, higher interest rates and the AI boom have reshaped funding conditions for advances in such areas as energy storage, carbon management and sustainable aviation fuels. The report argues that shrinking the so-called 'missing middle' will require a diverse set of solutions.

The EU and several development finance institutions have agreed to create the Global Green Bond Initiative Fund, a public-private investment vehicle to be managed by Amundi, which seeks to mobilise €20bn of private capital for sustainable infrastructure projects in low- and middle-income countries. Initial funding will come from European institutions, including the European Investment Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the development banks of France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain. The European Commission will provide credit protection via the European Fund for Sustainable Development Plus Guarantee scheme. Additional equity contributions will come from the Luxembourg government, implemented via LuxDev, with further funding expected from the Green Climate Fund upon finalisation of the documentation process later this year.

British International Investment has set out a new five-year strategy aimed at attracting £15bn of capital into developing economies, with 25% to be directed towards least developed countries. BII said it will contribute up to £8bn, with the remainder coming from private investors, and that it expects to mobilise £1 of private capital for every £1 of public funding – 40% more than in its previous five-year plan.

Brazil's BTG Pactual Timberland Investment Group has raised $1.24bn (€1.06bn) at the final close of its Latin American Reforestation Strategy, making the fund the largest of its type. It will invest in commercial timber production and ecosystem restoration for 660,000 acres of degraded land, focusing on Brazil's Cerrado savanna region, where more than half of the original vegetation has been cleared. As part of the fund's strategy, almost 29 million trees have already been planted on 64,000 acres and around 50,000 acres of land are being restored.

The EU-backed European Sustainable Energy Week has unveiled nine finalists for its 2026 flagship awards and is inviting the public to vote before May 31 for projects in three categories: SMEs Driving Energy Efficiency, Local Energy Action and Women in Energy. The awards will be presented during the week-long Sustainable Energy Week conference, set for June 9-11 in Brussels and online. Along with the June 9 awards ceremony, conference activities include an energy fair and initiatives aimed at young professionals.

The European Commission has released draft revisions to the European Sustainability Reporting Standards, along with a voluntary regime for smaller companies. Although the changes reduce the reporting burden for businesses, the Commission resisted last-minute pressure to align its sustainability reporting requirements with those of the International Sustainability Standards Board. While the new plans sharply reduce the number of data points enterprises must disclose, the revisions leave in place the EU's double materiality model, which requires companies to report both their own impact on the economy, environment and society as well as the impact of these on their businesses. The draft revisions are open for comment until June 3.

A Massachusetts federal judge has blocked the US Interior Department from carrying out Trump administration-ordered measures that developers say had put the brakes on hundreds of wind and solar projects. In granting a preliminary injunction, Denise Casper said renewable groups would be likely to succeed in arguing that the rules unlawfully discriminated against clean power and were causing irreparable harm. The ruling bars officials from subjecting initiatives to extra scrutiny and, in the case of renewable projects on federal lands, to personal approval by an Interior Department official.

The EU has instructed European partner banks to halt funding for renewable energy projects that rely upon Chinese, Iranian or Russian transmission grid equipment from November 1. The measure, which the EU says is intended to strengthen cyber-security and support domestic manufacturers, targets inverters: the devices that connect solar, wind and battery systems to grids. The ban applies to projects financed by the European Investment Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and institutions such as Germany's Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau, and extends to EU-funded projects outside the union.

European Central Bank president Christine Lagarde has called on Europe to shift to renewables to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels. Pointing out that around 60% of Europe's energy is imported, and most of it consists of fossil fuels, she argues that renewable energy sources offer a better path to meeting the EU's policy goals of energy security, sustainability and affordability, and that countries with a higher share of electricity generated from non-fossil fuel sources, such as Portugal and Spain, are better protected from rising natural gas prices.

The African Development Bank has urged African regulators to fully embrace global sustainability reporting standards. The call came at a workshop in Lagos that examined how jurisdictions can adapt national approaches to sustainability disclosure to International Sustainability Standards Board requirements. The AfDB also promoted its Africa ESG Hub, designed to help regulators and companies adopt International Sustainability Standards Board standards in ways suited to their national contexts.