Photo by Mikhail Nilov
Spending on renewable energy, such as solar, wind and biomass projects dropped by 1% to $304-billion (€270.5-billion), the lowest level since 2014, according to a report published by the International Energy Agency (IEA).
The world's energy watchdog warned that the world is moving in the opposite direction to the goals laid out by the Paris climate agreement, with spending and investment in renewable energy falling for the second year in a row and a rise in spending on fossil fuel extraction.
2018 also saw an increase in investment in coal mining by 2.6% compared with the previous year to $80-billion (€71.3-billion) and an expenditure increase on oil and gas extraction of 3.7% to $477-billion (€425-billion).
Almost 200 countries signed the Paris climate agreement in 2016. The agreement pledged to limit the global temperature rise to under 2°C compared to pre-industrial levels.
IEA executive director, Fatih Birol told the Financial Times: “Compared to 2015 when the Paris climate agreement was signed, the appetite to push low carbon investments and policies is slowly fading.”
If there was a bigger political will, we would have seen the numbers go the other way,” he continued. “I would put the responsibility of investment flows and which direction they go on the governments of the world.”
2018 was the first year since 2001 that saw no growth in renewable installations, despite the cost falling dramatically in that time.
Various reasons were cited for the downturn including the end of solar subsidies in China, a fall in capacity in India and the EU, higher crude prices driving a rise in oil and gas spending and the general uncertainty of the energy transition itself.
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