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olar can accelerate the decarbonisation of the world’s energy system and form the basis of the new low-carbon economy. It is already doing it. The International Energy Agency have stated that the cost of solar PV systems has dropped by 75 per cent in just six years and that we can expect a further drop in the price of the systems of 25-40 per cent by 2020. This means that solar will be even more affordable for everyone in the world. With new business models – community solar, crowd funding and social solar – we will all be able to benefit from this clean energy phenomenon.The potential of solar is huge and the recognition of this is growing across the world. The launch of the International Solar Alliance (ISA) and the Global Solar Council (GSC), which SolarPower Europe currently chairs, projected the cost advantages of solar to a huge global audience. This means that we can expect a huge acceleration of deployment in the coming years. SolarPower Europe estimates that the global solar market could grow from around 230GW installed in 2015 to 710GW by 2020. This is a huge increase and will make a low-carbon energy system a reality.The growth of solar means jobs. It means clean jobs in a clean-energy world. The days of people spending hours underground digging out carbon can come to an end sooner than most people imagine. This means a healthier society and better standards of living for all. Solar really can play a driving force in this across the world, it is a technology that fits well with the digitalisation of energy and a technology that can jump grid problems that are common in the developing world. Most importantly, it is a technology that can provide clean and secure jobs for huge numbers of people from Panama to Pakistan.WHAT IS OUR VISION FOR THE LOW-CARBON ECONOMY? Today countries around the world have been built on energy systems powered by fossil fuels and nuclear power. We must now transition to a low-carbon economy, an economy based on low-carbon sustainable power sources that has a minimal output of polluting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.At the Paris climate conference (COP21), 195 countries for the first time agreed on a universal, legally binding global climate pact. As part of the new international agreement countries have reported what post-2020 climate actions they intend to take, known as Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs). The climate actions in these INDCs will go a long way in determining whether the world will accomplish the goals of the Paris Agreement, which aims at limiting temperature rise to 1.5°C.The Paris Agreement and INDCs oblige us to decarbonise our societies, we cannot afford business as usual. The solutions are obvious, replacing fossil fuels with renewable energies is one of the fastest and most cost-effective ways to cut greenhouse gases. Recent technical and cost developments clearly indicate that solar is the preferred renewable energy choice to combat global warming.Governments must also play their part and despite the cost decreases in solar, it is the national authorities who must also act to ensure that a true and socially just low-carbon economy is built. Regulatory barriers for solar must be dismantled and new strategies must be developed and delivered to employ workers moving from traditional power sources to the new technologies of the low-carbon economy, such as solar, storage, smart homes and electric cars.The transition needs to be socially just, as moving to a low-carbon economy cannot mean that any communities suffer – no-one must be left behind.Therefore, governments must work with industry, business, civil society and the trade unions to deliver new industrial and competitiveness strategies with solar and other leading technologies at their heart. Now is the time to act and deliver a future-oriented and smart plan for ramping up the new low-carbon economy mainstay industries. That is why we in SolarPower Europe are calling on the European Commission to work with the solar industry to create a strategy for developing solar industries in Europe. Such a measure can ensure that countries build low-carbon technologies into their economic fabric, creating jobs and growth. SolarPower Europe’s industrial competitiveness strategy could support 300,000 direct and indirect jobs by 2030, more than doubling the 120,000 jobs provided by solar in Europe today.One other area of great importance to achieving the core of a low-carbon economy is the need to remove trade barriers to the movement of products that are fundamental to driving the low-carbon transition. SolarPower Europe fully supports the World Trade Organization’s drive to create an Environmental Goods Agreement (EGA), which will liberalise trade in all products that support low-carbon development. This is needed to ensure that people all over the world can benefit from the best quality low-carbon technologies at the best prices.S“CLEAR AND STABLE POLICIES NEED TO BE PUT IN PLACE TO ENSURE THAT THE BENEFITS OF COST-EFFECTIVE SOLAR ARE NOT SQUANDERED THROUGH NEEDLESS TARIFFS, TAXES AND OTHER BARRIERS”SUSTAINABLE ENERGY 095