Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investment 2016

In 2015, global investment in renewables grew about 5 percent relative to the previous year and reached an all-time high of US$ 286 billion (bn). And there are more interesting trends: Investment in renewables’ based electricity generation capacity in 2015 has been more than double the investment in the major fossil fuels (renewables: US$ 266 bn versus US$ 130 bn for coal and gas stations). This also leads to added capacity in terms of Gigawatts in 2015 in renewables (134 GW) outstripping all other technologies combined (conventional coal, gas, and nuclear). When looking at world regions it is striking that investments in developing countries (here non-OECD plus Chile, Turkey and Mexico) surpass aggregate investment in developed countries for the first time. China (up 17 percent to US$ 103 bn) is by far the largest investor in renewables, growing and accounting for more than a third of the world’s investment in this sector. These are some of the results of 2016 edition of Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investment, which the FS UNEP Centre produces jointly with UNEP and Bloomberg New Energy Finance.