Global climate change is a pressing issue as it will lead to widespread ecological damage and consequences to human health. A promising endeavor to counter climate change is renewable energy as it reduces the worst pollutants such as carbon dioxide. However, climate data reveals that current climate policies are not rigorous enough to meet the Paris Agreement’s goal of reducing global temperature increase to within 1.5°C of pre-industrial levels. Therefore, governments around the world must increase their implementation of renewable energy quickly before things become too late. Some countries have already heeded this call for action and have developed infrastructure to face this challenge. Countries such as the United States, Norway, Germany, China and Brazil are leaders in renewable energy and are models for other countries to follow. These countries utilized economic policies and incentives to spur development in the renewable energy sector. The purpose of this study is to analyze the beneficial economic policies that have enabled countries to develop their renewable energy sectors faster than other countries. This will be achieved through case studies on the aforementioned countries that are renewable energy leaders. The best and worst economic policies will be described and analyzed, so that a model can be created that will guide other countries in making the most optimal decisions for renewable energy development in their countries.