China leads world to eclipse fossil fuels with renewable energy

APD NEWS

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China is leading the world in replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy. Last year, the country invested 126.6 billion US dollars accounting for 45 percent of the global investment in green energy, a United Nations report released on Thursday said.

Globally, a record 157 gigawatts (GW) of renewable power was commissioned, up from 2016’s 143GW. Renewables outstripped the 70GW of net fossil fuel generating capacity added in the previous year.

Among the renewables, solar dominated with nearly 38 percent or 98 GW of the net new power in 2017. China alone contributed more than half of the solar energy generation with the installation of 53GW capacity with an investment of 86.5 billion US dollars.

“The extraordinary surge in solar investment shows how the global energy map is changing and, more importantly, what the economic benefits are of such a shift,” said United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) chief, Erik Solheim said.

Ironically, developing economies accounted for a record 63 percent of global investment in renewable energy in 2017, up from 54 percent in 2016. The “Big Three,” China, Brazil, and India that account for more than half of the global investment in renewables, committed 177 billion US dollars to the green energy sector last year, a steep hike of 20 percent.

A decline in developed countries offset the phenomenal increase in renewable growth in developing nations. Europe is witnessing a significant slump with investment in renewables scaled back by 36 percent, amounting to 40.9 billion US dollars.

The most prominent reason was a fall of 65 percent in UK investment to 7.6 billion US dollars, reflecting an end to subsidies for onshore wind and utility-scale solar, and a big gap between auctions for offshore wind projects. Germany also saw a steep drop in the investment of 35 percent or 10.4 billion US dollars.

Renewable energy investment in the US was also far below China, at 40.5 billion US dollars, down 6 percent. “It was relatively resilient in the face of policy uncertainties, although changing business strategies affected small-scale solar,” the UN report observed. Japan also tripped with renewable investment down by 28 percent at 13.4 billion US dollars.

Total renewable energy investments climbed up to 280 billion US dollars last year. Coal and gas managed 103 billion US dollars, while spending on large hydropower dams and nuclear plants stood at 45 billion US dollars and 42 billion US dollars respectively.

“Investments in renewables bring more people into the economy; they deliver more jobs, better quality jobs, and better-paid jobs. Clean energy also means less pollution, which means healthier, happier development,” Solheim said.

Mexico and Sweden entered the list of top 10 countries regarding investment in 2017, recording 6 billion US dollars and 3.7 billion US dollars respectively.

Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Argentina, three developing economies, also saw a renewable investment boom in 2017, with 2.6 billion, 2.2 billion and 1.8 billion US dollars respectively.

(CGTN)