The dogs bark, the caravan moves on. Beyond a superficial wobble in Europe, there has been no retreat from the post-fossil fuel transition across the world.
Bloomberg New Energy Finance (billionEF) estimates that capex investment in clean energy was $US1.2 trillion ($1.9 trillion) in 2021, $US1.5 trillion in 2022, and $US1.8 trillion in 2023, despite a stiff rise in interest rates and a credit crunch for green start-ups. The total is now over three times as much as upstream capex on oil and gas.
Under Xi Jinping, China has led the way with the green revolution. The rest of the world is finally catching up. Credit: AP
You would scarcely know it from the political noise but the pace of decarbonisation accelerated last year, and has crossed a critical threshold.
The renewable energy roll-out is running near 800 gigawatts (GW) a year, greater than the 700 GW annual increase in power consumption.
The International Energy Agency and Rystad forecast that fossil fuel use in electricity generation will decline this year in absolute terms.
From there it is a one-way street. The West has woken up to the technology threat from China, pulling slightly ahead last year with combined capex spending of $US718 billion on clean tech and the mineral supply chain. Clean capex rose 38 per cent in Europe, reaching $US341 billion in the EU and to $US74 billion in the UK – more than France ($US56 billion), or Italy ($US30 billion), which might surprise some. “It is simply a technology battle at this point. There are three key races in clean tech and China is winning all of them,” said Kingsmill Bond from the Rocky Mountain Institute.
“The US and Europe are massively behind but last year was the year they got back into the game. There is an exponential growth story taking place across the leading regions and sectors of the world.”
Global capex on EVs, fuel-cell vehicles and charging infrastructure rose 36 per cent last year to $US634 billion. Spending on energy storage has risen fivefold in two years. There is now enough investment in the pipeline for solar, batteries and mine production to meet the world’s CO2 target by 2030.
The world’s green juggernaut will become unstoppable this year
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The dogs bark, the caravan moves on. Beyond a superficial wobble in Europe, there has been no retreat from the post-fossil fuel transition across the world.
Bloomberg New Energy Finance (billionEF) estimates that capex investment in clean energy was $US1.2 trillion ($1.9 trillion) in 2021, $US1.5 trillion in 2022, and $US1.8 trillion in 2023, despite a stiff rise in interest rates and a credit crunch for green start-ups. The total is now over three times as much as upstream capex on oil and gas.
Under Xi Jinping, China has led the........
© The Sydney Morning Herald
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