Europe leads global decline in clean energy investments
Political and economic uncertainty, primarily in key EU renewable markets such as Spain and Italy, appear to be the main drivers of the global decline in renewable energy investments.
According to research by Bloomberg New Energy Finance, the rate of new investments in climate friendly energy fell worldwide by 11% during 2012. In the same time, global demand for oil continued along a slow growth path (88.9 million barrels per day in 2011 vs 89.7 mb/d in 2012), but contracted in Europe (15.0 mb/d in 2011 vs 14.5 mb/d in 2012), as a result of a combination of very high product prices and a steadily declining economic state.
WWF shares the vision of a 100% renewable energy future by 2050, as the central path towards curbing global warming. Although the EU has taken important steps in this direction, the remaining greenhouse has budget requires further ambition and higher aims. The path of renewable energy technologies remains the shortest and cheapest in closing the ‘gigatonne gap’.
Sources: Bloomberg New Energy Finance, International Energy Agency, QualEnergia.it (in Italian), WWF Spain (in Spanish)