Global Clean-Energy Investment Rose 60% in 2007

July 1 (Bloomberg) — Wind, solar and biofuel companies received a record $148 billion in new funding last year as rising oil prices and climate-change rules encouraged investment in renewable energy, the United Nations Environment Program said.

Wind power attracted the most financing at $50 billion, according to a report today from the Nairobi-based UNEP. Overall, investment in clean-energy and energy-efficiency industries rose 60 percent from 2006.

Carbon dioxide, the byproduct of burning coal, oil and natural gas, is the main pollutant blamed for global warming. Fossil-fuel burning power plants are the world’s biggest source of CO2, according to the Paris-based International Energy Agency.

“We have a significant economic signal here that goes well beyond what even 10 years ago some of the mainstream energy think tanks or international finance institutions thought would happen,” Achim Steiner, the director general of UNEP, said on a conference call. “It reflects a clear understanding in the marketplace that environmental change scenarios are indeed driving public policy.”

Bloomberg