The Sustainable Energy Finance Initiative published the Global Trends in Sustainable Energy Investment 2010 report last week.

Here are some of the key findings. . .

• New investment in sustainable energy in 2009 was $162 billion, down from $173 billion in 2008. The 7 percent decline reflected the impact of the recession on investment in Europe and North America in particular, with renewable energy projects and companies finding it harder to access finance.

• China saw a surge in investment. Out of $119 billion invested worldwide by the financial sector in clean energy companies and utility-scale projects, $33.7 billion took place in China, up 53 percent on 2008. Financial investment in Europe was down 10 percent at $43.7 billion, while that in Asia and Oceania, at $40.8 billion, exceeded that in the Americas, at $32.4 billion, for the first time.

• Research, development and deployment spending by governments and corporation totaled $24.6 billion in 2009, with government R&D up 49 percent at $9.7 billion and corporate RD&D down 16 percent at $14.9 billion. The shifts reflected greater willingness by governments to invest in research on sustainable energy technologies – to help generate economic activity – and also caution on the part of some big corporate players at a time when their profits were under pressure.

• Clean energy share prices rose almost 40 percent in 2009, reversing around a third of the losses they experienced in 2008.

You can read the full report here.

Jeff

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