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UN environmental agency hails green energy ‘gold rush’

The world is enjoying a “green energy gold rush,” the UN’s environmental agency said on Tuesday as it published a report outlining a 60 percent hike in investment in renewable energy last year.

The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) study, published in Nairobi, said more than US$148 billion in new funds were plowed into the quest for cleaner energy last year.

The massive demand for solar, wind and biofuel energy was being powered by prevailing climate change worries, growing support from world governments and rising crude oil prices, the UN agency said.

Transformation

“Just as thousands were drawn to California and the Klondike in the late 1800s, the green energy gold rush is attracting legions of modern-day prospectors in all parts of the globe,” UNEP executive director Achim Steiner said in a statement.

“What is unfolding is nothing less than a fundamental transformation of the world’s energy infrastructure,” Steiner said.

The UNEP report said wind energy attracted the highest investment, raking in US$50.2 billion last year. As of March this year, its production capacity was more than 100 gigabytes, it said.

Solar power grew most rapidly, attracting US$28.6 billion in new capital and growing at an average annual rate of 254 percent since 2004.

Biofuel investment declined by one-third to US$2.1 billion last year, with new investment shifting from the US to the growth economies of Brazil, India and China.

Much of the new cash flowed into Europe and the US, but China, India and Brazil were drawing increasing interest with investment in the three nations up from 12 percent in 2004 to 22 percent last year — an increase from US$1.8 billion to US$26 billion.

Effectively, China, India and Brazil accounted for nearly a quarter of the new investment in clean energy.

Sustainable energy accounted for 23 percent of new power capacity added globally last year, about 10 times that of nuclear, the report said.

Sustainable

“Investment in the sustainable energy sectors must continue to grow strongly if targets for greenhouse gas reductions and renewables and efficiency increases are to be met,” it said.

“Investment between now and 2030 is expected to reach US$450 billion a year by 2012, rising to more than US$600 billion a year from 2020,” it said.

The report added that energy from biomass and geothermal power were being lined up as the next growth industries as the world strives to end its dependency on fossil fuels blamed for contributing to global warming.

Steiner said the transition to cleaner energy sources had become inevitable in the modern world.

“With world temperatures and fossil fuel prices climbing higher, it is increasingly obvious to the public and investors alike that the transition to a low-carbon society is both a global imperative and an inevitability,” Steiner said.
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