A Natural Fit
Renewable energy and sustainable land management
The ongoing shift to renewable energy systems is necessary to avoid catastrophic climate change impacts but carries its own complex environmental footprint when it comes to land use. Governments and stakeholders should deploy equitable and context-specific dual-land-use systems to ensure a surge in renewable energy generation not only avoids land degradation, but actually improves land, food security, biodiversity conservation, and local livelihoods.
Policy Recommendations
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Countries can avoid land degradation by siting renewable energy systems on land or freshwater systems that have already been degraded or modified by human activities, such as abandoned agricultural land, buildings and infrastructure, canals, and reservoirs.
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Countries can reverse land degradation by the targeted siting of solar and wind farms on marginal or degraded land. For example, solar systems can support land restoration through shading or wind protection, providing clean energy while promoting soil health and vegetation growth under solar panels.
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Improved access to low-cost energy at the farm and community levels provides critical support for sustainable water management in agriculture, zero-emission farm machinery, and food processing and storage that can reduce food loss, improve supply chain integration, and enhance community resilience.
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In order to be equitable and effective, dual-land-use systems require an enabling environment that includes policy and sector coordination, governance and regulatory frameworks, finance and incentive mechanisms, and capacity building and stakeholder engagement.
Renewable energy, including solar and wind power, is becoming increasingly accepted by the public—and cost effective. In 2024, renewables accounted for 29.9% of global electricity generation, 46% of total installed power capacity, and over 90% of newly added capacity. Solar power increased by a record 29%, continuing the trend of doubling global solar capacity every 3 years.
The global clean energy transition is gathering speed, but it carries its own complex environmental footprint. On average, renewable energies require more land than fossil fuels. This higher land footprint has raised concerns a rapid clean energy transition could harm land quality and compete with other land uses, such as food production, biodiversity conservation, and carbon sequestration. Renewable energy technologies also heavily rely on extraction and processing of critical minerals, which further increases their land footprint.
This report explores challenges and opportunities at the renewable energy–land nexus. The authors scan the recent scientific and grey literature on interactions between renewable energy and land alongside integrated approaches that consider these interactions to create multiple benefits for the climate, land, biodiversity, and people. The report discusses
- the land footprint of different renewable energy sources, while identifying how each source interacts with land and reviewing the potential negative and positive impacts that can arise from these interactions,
- strategies to reduce land demand for renewable energy, and design systems and approaches that minimize land degradation and enhance benefits for land, biodiversity, climate, and people, and
- governance and finance aspects that can provide entry points for decision-makers to support the development of integrated approaches.
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