*

Kenya says Africa receives insufficient funds despite

solar

opportunities

*

Azerbaijan wants global pledge to boost electricity

storage

sixfold

*

AI can be part of the problem and part of the solution,

AES ( AES ) says

(Recasts and writes through with comments from Biden, AES ( AES ),

Azerbaijan plan for COP29 pledge)

By Valerie Volcovici and Simon Jessop

NEW YORK, Sept 24 (Reuters) - World leaders on Tuesday

called for far more investment in renewable energy to tackle

climate change, with developing nations saying they need

financial support to make the transition.

Speaking at a Global Renewables Summit, Kenyan President

William Ruto made the case for investing in renewables in Africa

as part of the global pledge made at last year's COP28 summit to

triple clean energy capacity by 2030.

"Africa receives less than 50% of global investment in

renewable energy despite being home to 60% of the world's best

solar opportunities," Ruto told the summit, which is being held

on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly

The continent is rich in resources needed for development,

he said, but can't always access those resources due to the

current mix of "unreliable or expensive energy."

Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley said that fossil fuel

subsidies outnumber renewable energy subsidies, which makes it

more expensive for small states to develop clean energy

projects.

"Small states face the reality that the cost of renewable

energy ... will probably be higher than traditionally fossil

fuels," she said.

Recent reports, including one by the International Energy

Agency, suggest that tripling the world's renewable capacity is

feasible within this decade. But the effort will require robust

regulation including strong rules for issuing project permits as

well as investments in building out transmission and battery

storage.

Azerbaijan, which is hosting this year's COP29 climate

summit in November, said it was planning to rally governments to

make a new global pledge to increase electricity storage

sixfold.

Earlier in the day, a coalition of some of the world's

biggest companies, finance houses and cities called Mission 2025

urged governments to adopt policies that they said could unleash

up to $1 trillion in clean energy investments by 2030. The

policies include setting new capacity targets and offering tax

credits or long-term electricity contracts that would encourage

investment.

"WE DID IT"

Giving his final major speech on climate change at a forum

attended by clean energy business leaders, U.S. President Joe

Biden celebrated his $369 billion signature climate law.

"We were told it couldn't get done and we did it," he said

of passing the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022, adding that the

legislation has since encouraged innovation and created hundreds

of thousands of jobs.

"Private companies have announced investments of over $1

trillion in clean manufacturing," he told the event. "We are

just getting started."

Some companies and investors are looking at artificial

intelligence technologies with excitement for the solutions they

might bring but there is also concern about the energy-intensive

data centers that are needed to power them.

AI is "a problem, and it's part of the solution," Andres

Gluski, the chief executive officer of U.S. power firm AES

Corporation ( AES ) told Reuters in an interview.

"With AI, we could come up with new materials that are

better for batteries, that are better than copper," he said.

"If we have labor shortages, AI will help us. If we have to

do demand management, AI will help us."