Global investments in renewable energies have risen by five percent to a record high of 286 billion US dollars in 2015. This figure is more than twice the amount invested in coal and gas power plants. The finding comes from a report supported by the Federal Environment Ministry and published by the UNEP Centre at the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management.
The report "Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investment 2016" will be presented in Frankfurt today by the United Nations Environment Programme, the Frankfurt School's UNEP Collaborating Centre for Climate and Sustainable Energy Finance and Bloomberg New Energy Finance, a financial services provider.
Among the most prominent developments for 2016 is the upward trend in investments in developing countries and emerging economies. These countries' investments, now 17 times higher than 2004 levels, eclipsed those in industrialised countries for the first time with an investment volume of 156 billion US dollars. China holds the lion's share in this record-breaking figure with a 17 percent increase in investments and a global share in renewable energy investments of more than 33 percent. India, South Africa and Chile have also registered major growth in investments.
Despite this, just ten percent of global electricity is generated from renewable energy sources. New coal and gas power plants are causing further increases in climate-damaging greenhouse gases due to their long design life. Nevertheless, growing investments in renewable energies show that an extensive structural change is underway and that there is an increasing awareness of the need for renewable energies.