It is well known that there is no one strategy required to lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions or to mitigate global climate change. While some countries have made some headway in implementing various plans to reduce GHG emissions through use of renewable energy, emissions are still rising and some states remain politically divided on the issue. This clearly limits the effect that these policies can have on their overall emissions. The number of policies a country uses toward a specific goal only tells part of the story about how well it will be able to achieve those goals. Using the policy output framework outlined by Schaffrin, Sewerin and Seubert (2015), we conducted a content analysis of federal and state/provincial renewable energy policies in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Mexico and the United States from 2000 to 2016. The policy output we are interested in is the sum of policy density (e.g. the number of existing policies relating to a particular goal) and intensity (e.g. the strength the policy has toward meeting specific goals). The higher the policy score for a country, the more likely the country will be able to meet its intended goals. Our results show that in terms of policy density, the United States has the densest renewable energy policy output, followed by Canada, then Brazil and finally, Argentina has the least-dense policy output. Where these countries differ is in how long they have supported renewable policies and the differences between their policy intensity at the national and state/provincial levels. These findings show that countries may be spending resources on producing myriad renewable energy policies, but without coordination between different levels of government or a sincere effort to ensure that the policy instruments are effective, those resources may be wasted while GHGs continue to rise.