Kieran Cooke
Climate NewsNetwork
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9d/Deepwater_Horizon_offshore_drilling_unit_on_fire_2010.jpg work of the U.S. federal government, the image is in the public domain
Energy experts say global investment patterns show a spectacular shift, with
renewables on the rise and support for fossil fuels in sharp decline.
A
revolution is taking place in the
global energy sector, with investments in oil and gas declining by
25% in 2015 while energy produced from renewables rose by more than
30%. “We have never seen such a decline [in
oil and gas investment]”, said Dr Fatih Birol,
executive director of the International Energy
Agency (IEA), at the London launch of its first
ever report into world energy investment.
“Our findings carry a very important message
for climate change and for the Paris agreement. Anyone who does not understand what
is going on – governments, companies, markets – is not in the right place.”
Replacing fossil fuels with renewable energies
is seen as vital in the battle against climate
change. The IEA, which focuses on issues of
energy security, says that overall investment in
the global energy sector declined by 8% in
2015 to US$1.8 trillion.
Fossil fuels products
In part, the decline in investments in oil and
gas was due to the lower costs of crude oil
and other products of the fossil fuels industry.
Although investment in renewables has been
more or less the same in each of the last four
years, increased efficiencies and lower capital
costs resulted in a third more electricity being
produced from these technologies in 2015.
“A major shift in investment towards low carbon sources of power generation is under
way,” the IEA report says. “Fossil fuels continue to dominate energy supply, but the composition of investment flows points to a reordering of the system.” Lazlo Varro, an IEA re-
Jürgen from Sandesneben, Germany https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Alternative_Energies.jpg