Clean energy beats fossils 2:1, but not enough to save the climate
International Energy Agency: Oil & gas investments are too high and only 4% of spending on green sources comes from oil & gas companies
3' min read
3' min read
Clean energy beats dirty fuels 2 to 1: that is the ratio between investments in green sources, which will reach $2 trillion in 2024, and fossil fuels, according to the International Energy Agency (Iea). The $1 trillion - which will end up in oil, gas and coal - is still too much to contain climate change to acceptable levels, the Iea study points out.
On the same day as the publication of the World Energy Investment report, the EU climate service, Copernicus, has sanctioned that May 2024 was the 12th month in a row to break heat records: the average global temperature over the past 12 months, from June 2023 to May 2024, was the highest ever recorded, 1.63° above the pre-industrial average 1850-1900, above the 1.5° limit set by the Paris Agreement.
The Overtaking
.Combined investments in clean technologies (renewables, electric vehicles, nuclear, grids, CO2 storage, energy efficiency, low-emission fuels) already exceeded those in fossil fuels in 2023. And this despite the difficulties created by inflation and high interest rates, which have held back several projects, particularly in wind power.
"We have reached an important milestone. Investment in clean energy is setting new records," said Iea Director Fatih Birol. "The increase in clean energy spending is supported by continued cost reductions and energy security issues," Birol added. "In 2023, every dollar invested in wind and photovoltaics generated 2.5 times more energy than a dollar spent on the same technologies a decade earlier," the report said.
The photovoltaic boom
.Spending on photovoltaics, in particular, now exceeds that of any other electricity generation technology, with investments set to grow to USD 500 billion by 2024, thanks to falling solar module prices. In the first quarter of 2024, solar accounted for as much as 75 per cent of additional installed generation capacity in the United States.
