The World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg in 2002 was organised with the intention to take stock and give new impetus to sustainable development ten years after the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. At the WSSD, energy was one of the major topics on the global agenda for the first time.

Paragraph 18 of the Political Declaration set the stage for the issues to be focussed "on targets, timetables and partnerships, to speedily increase access to such basic requirements as clean water, sanitation, adequate shelter, energy, health care, food security and the protection of biodiversity."

Renewable energy, too, has figured prominently on the agenda of the WSSD, and the global community agreed that it must be part of the solution. The Johannesburg Plan of Implementation (JPOI), adopted at the Summit, addresses renewable energy in several of its chapters. In Chapter II on poverty eradication, governments agree to improve access to reliable and affordable energy services for sustainable development, so as to facilitate the achievement of the MDGs. This includes actions to increase the use of renewables. In Chapter III on sustainable consumption and production patterns, governments agree to boost substantially the global share of renewable energy sources, with the objective of increasing the contribution of renewable energy to total energy supply. They recognise the role of national and voluntary regional targets and initiatives, and the need to ensure that energy policies support developing countries' efforts to eradicate poverty.

However, renewable energies were also a subject of disagreement, and the conclusions stopped short of setting time-bound targets and subsidies for renewable energy, which some participants had hoped for. A number of countries, including host South Africa, had pushed strongly for agreement on some form of energy targets whereby countries would commit themselves to move towards more sustainable and renewable energy systems.

Instead, paragraph 20 of the JPOI calls all stakeholders to implement the recommendations of CSD-9 concerning energy for sustainable development, and highlights some issues referring also to renewable energy.

As a reaction to the - perceived or real - failure of the entirety of governments to achieve meaningful action with regard to renewable energy, many independent initiatives and commitments were triggered that may otherwise never have come about. In the long run, these dynamic activities may arguably prove to be more important than the conference itself:
 

• In the absence of a general agreement on targets and timetables, some countries committed themselves to increasing access to modern energy services, energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy, and to phasing out - where appropriate - energy subsidies.
   
• The European Community and the EU member states launched the "coalition of like-minded countries on the way forward on renewable energies", which was later to become the Johannesburg Renewable Energy Coalition (JREC). This coalition favours time-bound targets for a rapid increase in renewable energies. JREC is steadily growing and today counts 94 member countries (as of June 2006).
   
• The European Union also announced a USD 700m partnership, the EU Energy Initiative (EUEI).
   
• Germany pledged to contribute USD 500m to support renewable energy development in the next five years. Part of this money was to hold an International Renewable Energy Conference in Bonn in June 2004, to which German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder invited all the stakeholders at the WSSD.
   
• The United States pledged a USD 43m investment in 2003. The United States joined a number of gobal partnerships, including GVEP, REEEP, REN21. Later on, the US created the Asia Pacific Partnership (APP)
   
• Regional pledges of targets and timetables were announced and reaffirmed by the European Union as well as Latin America and Caribbean countries.
   
• Sustainable and renewable energy also became the subject of a number of so-called "Type 2 partnerships". In contrast to the Type 1 outcomes that require negotiation and agreement by all governments (i.e. JPOI and the Political Declaration, which failed to entail binding targets and an international regime), "Type 2" outcomes are voluntary partnerships between stakeholders from business, civil society, and governments.
  
  The UN received a total of 32 partnership submissions for energy projects, worth over USD 26m in resources. Relevant to renewable energy are:
   
  • The Global Network on Energy for Sustainable Development (GNESD) for the research, transfer and deployment of cleaner energy technologies to the developing world was launched by the United Nations Environment Programme.
  • The Global Village Energy Partnership (GVEP) is charged with improving energy access and is spearheaded by the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States
  • The Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP) was initiated by the United Kingdom with the mission to accelerate the global market and financing for renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies.
  • The Global Policy Network REN21 is an outcome of the Bonn Renewable Energy Conference (mentioned above), and thereby is also rooted in WSSD. REN21 is included as a Type 2 partnership under the JPOI.
     
• Important for renewable energy are also general development partnerships like the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), which strives to ensure energy access for at least 35% within 20 years.