Developing world bucks decline in green energy funding

Siobhan Chan in SciDev.net: Spending on renewable energy is undergoing a geographic shift, with developing countries investing more last year despite an overall 12 per cent drop in global spending since 2011, according to two reports published this week (12 June).  The reports found that developing countries invested a total of US$112 billion in renewable energy in 2012, up 19 per cent from 2011.

Just under four per cent of the US$244 billion invested globally went on research and development, rising — albeit only slightly — for an eighth consecutive year. At US$9.6 billion in 2012, global R&D funding has almost doubled since 2004.

'Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investment 2013', by the Frankfurt School-UNEP Collaborating Centre for Climate & Sustainable Energy Finance and information service Bloomberg New Energy Finance, was published alongside 'Renewables 2013: Global Status Report' by REN21, a global renewable energy policy network.

Two-thirds of the 138 countries with renewable energy policies and targets were in the developing world, the Global Trends report found.  Of the developing countries, China continued to dominate the sector, increasing its investment by 22 per cent to US$67 billion. Latin American countries such as Chile and Mexico also increased their investment in the sector.

However, countries in the Middle East and Africa had the greatest growth, increasing spending by 228 per cent to US$12 billion....

A wind farm in Mongolia, shot by Steven Buss, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license