Solar power investment is set to outstrip spending on oil production this year for the first time, the head of the International Energy Agency has said, highlighting a surge in clean energy development that will help curb global emissions if the trend persists.
“If these clean energy investments continue to grow in line with what we have seen in the past few years . . . we will soon start to see a very different energy system emerging and we can keep the 1.5C goal alive,” Fatih Birol, executive director of the IEA, told the Financial Times, in reference to the Paris Agreement target to limit the global temperature rise.
This year $1.7tn is forecast to be spent on clean technologies compared with $1tn on fossil fuels. Five years ago, the $2tn in annual energy investment was split evenly between fossil fuels and clean technology, such as renewables, electric vehicles and low-emissions fuels.