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According to the Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investment 2014 report, which is produced by the Frankfurt School-UNEP Collaborating Centre for Climate & Sustainable... Renewable Energy Market Share is Rising

According to the Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investment 2014 report, which is produced by the Frankfurt School-UNEP Collaborating Centre for Climate & Sustainable Energy Finance, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and Bloomberg New Energy Finance, the share of world electricity generated from renewable energy sources, continued a stable climb in 2013 despite a 14% drop in investments to $214.4 billion.

clean energy

The investments drop of $US35.1 billion was partially due to the decreasing costs of solar systems. Another main reason was due to policy uncertainty in lots of countries; an issue that has also pushed down investment in fossil fuel generation during the last year.

Globally, renewable energies, excluding large hydroelectric, accounted for 43.6% of newly installed generating capacity during the last year. World energy-related CO2 emissions would have been an estimated 1.2 gigatonnes higher in 2013, were it not for renewable energies.  This would have increased the gap by approximately 12% between where emissions are heading and where they need to be in the 6 years form now, if the world is to have a realistic prospect of staying under a two degree Centigrade temperature increase that is.

Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UNEP said, “A long-term shift in investment over the next few decades towards a cleaner energy portfolio is needed to avoid dangerous climate change, with the energy sector accounting for around two thirds of total greenhouse gas emissions…The fact that renewable energy is gaining a bigger share of overall generation globally is encouraging. To support this further, we must re-evaluate investment priorities, shift incentives, build capacity and improve governance structures…While some may point to the fact that overall investment in renewables fell in 2013, the drop masks the many positive signals of a dynamic market that is fast evolving and maturing,” he added. “This should give governments the confidence to forge a new robust climate agreement to cut emissions at the 2015 climate change conference in Paris.”

Over the last few years, Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investment has become the standard reference for global renewable energy investment figures. The 2014 edition of these figures is being showcased at the Bloomberg New Finance Initiative entitled “Future of Energy Summit” in New York, U.S.

Large hydroelectric projects were another important area of investment with approximately $35 billion worth of investment.  However, the best performance amongst investment types in the last year was public market equity-raising by renewable energy companies.  This figure has jumped massively 201 per cent to $11 billion (the highest since 2010).

As always, if you would like to leave a sensible comment, then please do so in the comments section below.

[Image via morguefile]

SOURCE: http://phys.org/news/2014-04-renewable-energy-climbs-dip-investments.html