Clean energy investment surges in China – report

Business start-up funding for climate-friendly companies in China is soaring, nearing in the first three months of this year the level for the whole of 2005, according to a report by analysts Cleantech Group.

Western enthusiasm to invest in Chinese clean energy companies is perhaps unsurprising given ambitious measures there to try and curb the environmental impacts of a booming economy.
Beijing wants to cut energy consumption per unit of national wealth by a fifth by 2010, and get a tenth of its energy from environmentally-friendly sources by then.

Venture capital investment in environmentally-friendly companies, and especially clean energy, reached $154 million in the first three months of this year, compared to $170 million and $420 million for the whole of 2005 and 2006 respectively, the report found.

Reuters