Record increase in clean energy investment seen to bolster global energy investment in 2022

Global energy investment has been projected to grow by 8% in 2022 by the International Energy Agency. This increase is said to be driven by clean energy investments in both renewable energy and energy efficiency that recorded a faster rate of increase at 12% since 2020 compared to 2% in the first 5 years since the Paris Agreement was signed in 2015.

While heartening to learn of this record rate of growth in global energy investments, there are worrisome details  that are notable:

1. clean energy investments in emerging and developing economies (excluding the People’s Republic of China and India) remained at 2015 levels;
2. the rise in prices due to supply constraints and other input variables contributed to the increase;
3. investments in coal supply increased by 10%, driven by developing economies in Asia.