Cleantech investments climb despite COP15 failure

Global Renewable Energy Investments

After the farce that was the UN climate change summit in Copenhagen, people feared that the clean energy industry would suffer as a result of world leaders failing to reach a comprehensive global agreement and ways to move forward.

But even without an international deal to limit carbon dioxide emissions it would that clean energy investments have shown no sign of slowing. Bloomberg New Energy Finance Chief Executive Officer, Michael Liebreich said that in 2009, due to one of the worst recessions in living memory, investment last year in wind turbines, solar panels and other technologies that emit little or no CO2 pollutants declined six percent.

Yet signs of hope have started to emerge for the cleantech sector, with clean energy becoming a driving force for global economic recovery in pretty much every region on the planet. Even though investments in renewable energy dropped last year, the combined global revenue for the three major clean-energy sectors - solar photovoltaics (PV), wind power, and biofuels - grew by 11.4 percent over 2008, reaching US$139.1 billion.

Renewable energy moving forward

"Despite severe economic conditions, clean-energy markets were able to hold their momentum in 2009 as many regional and federal governments and private corporations focused on clean-energy investments as a way to pull out of the global economic tailspin," said Ron Pernick, Clean Edge Inc. co-founder and managing director.

And now even investments in renewable energy are showing signs of moving forward, despite the failings of COP15. In a television interview at a summit in London, Liebreich said the world is fully expected to invest about US$150 billion in renewable energy every year.

Government stimulus funds and new legislation in many countries is now encouraging investment in low carbon energy. The EU is on target to hit its goal of producing 20 percent of energy from renewable sources while legislation currently making its way through Congress in the US would reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and boost renewable energy.

Wind and solar power are expected to show the strongest growth. Wind power (new installation capital costs) is projected to expand from US$63.5 billion in 2009 to US$114.5 billion in 2019, while Solar PV will grow from a US$30.7 billion industry in 2009 to US$98.9 billion in the same period, according to the Clean Energy Trends 2010 report issued by Clean Edge Inc.

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Daniel Jones

Daniel is a Politics and Philosophy graduate from Cardiff University where he also worked as a section editor on the award winning student newspaper. After university he joined an IT support company where he was a B2B online writer. He loves anything to do with sport and joined GDS in July 2009.

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