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Global Trends In Sustainable Energy Investment 2007

Global Trends In Sustainable Energy Investment 2007
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

Publisher: United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
Number Of Pages: 54
Publication Date: 2007
Sales Rank:
ISBN / ASIN: 9280728598 / 9789280728590
Binding: PDF
GLOBAL TRENDS IN SUSTAINABLE ENERGY INVESTMENT 2007
Analysis of Trends and Issues in the Financing of Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency in OECD and Developing Countries

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This report was commissioned by UNEP’s Division of Technology,
Industry and Economics (DTIE) under its Sustainable Energy Finance
Initiative and was produced in collaboration with New Energy Finance Limited.

AUTHORS
Christopher Greenwood
Alice Hohler
Michael Liebreich
Virginia Sonntag-O’Brien
Eric Usher
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FORWARD

US energy expert Amory Lovins’ advice to energy planners is blunt: “In God we
trust, all others bring data”. In respect of climate change, that data is now in. Climate
change is happening—it is “unequivocal” and the likely impacts are sobering.
When it comes to solving this enormous challenge, however, the new data in this
report presents a positive message from and to the world’s fi nanciers: investments in
sustainable energy are rapidly increasing to meet the need for a low-carbon society.
Global Trends in Sustainable Energy Investment includes data showing that
investments in renewable energy and energy effi ciency industries set a new record
of more than $100 billion worth of transactions in 2006. In 2007, the upward trend
continues, with capital investments occurring in sectors and regions previously
considered too risky and too illiquid to merit the attention
of the institutional investment community.
The OECD still dominates, but there is now rapidly
emerging activity from companies in China, India and
Brazil. Indeed, Chinese companies were the second
largest recipient of venture capital in 2006 after the
United States. In the same year, India was the largest
net buyer of companies abroad, mostly in the more established European markets.
This is more than just interesting data, however. It is a powerful market signal to
the arrival of an alternative future for today’s fossil-fuel dominated energy markets.
Signals move markets, and the signal these investment numbers make is that
markets are becoming more liquid, more globalised and more mainstream.
This is full-scale industrial development, not just a tweaking of the energy system.
The challenge now for governments, energy planners and policy makers is to build
off of this positive market dynamic, turning near-term advances into long-term
frameworks and continued sector growth.
These signals are particularly important for governments beginning to consider the
next round of climate negotiations. Climate change generates a lot of discussion
about the “technologies of tomorrow”. The data in this report clearly shows that the
fi nance sector believes the technologies of today can and will “decarbonise” the
energy mix.
Many fi nanciers are already ahead of the latest report from the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change, seeing investments in current renewable energy and
energy effi cient technologies as key opportunities to profi tably address climate
change. If the current market signal remains and is strengthened through
policies to lower carbon emissions, this sector will far surpass the predictions of
conventional energy analysts, which have mostly assumed a very minor role for these
technologies. Financiers will not be the only ones to profi t - communities will take
their returns in cleaner air and water, and new cleantech jobs.