Clean Tech Investment

Global investment in clean technology will rise 35 per cent this year, despite ongoing uncertainty over climate change policy in the US and EU, according to a report published today by research firm Datamonitor . The report, entitled Challenges and opportunities for energy utility companies post-Copenhagen , predicts clean tech investment will bounce back strongly this year, led by the wind energy sector, which has received a major boost from government-backed economic stimulus packages. Alex Desbarres, senior renewables analyst at Datamonitor, said that despite the failure to deliver an international climate change deal and ongoing uncertainty about the future of the carbon markets in the US and Europe, growing numbers of businesses are increasing their investment in clean technologies.

“Copenhagen did not deliver the low-carbon vision, clear policy landscape and regulatory frameworks that the energy clean tech investment community had hoped for,” he said. “For all its flaws, however, the Copenhagen Accord gave the clean tech community the sense that private investors will drive the transition to a low-carbon economy.” The report said there was little evidence that an overarching global regulatory framework would be developed within the next few years, but argued that with new national and sub-national legislation and initiatives emerging all the time, investors will continue to flock to the clean tech sector. “Datamonitor expects that progress on new global and US climate regimes will be slow and unconvincing this year, but that the race to dominate the emerging clean economy will accelerate regardless, fuelled by unprecedented quantities of green and clean stimulus funding,” the report states.

The study is the latest in a series of reports to suggest that the clean tech sector is recovering well after venture capital investment levels collapsed following the onset of recession in 2008. A report earlier this year by the Cleantech Group suggested that while venture capital investment in clean tech firms fell 33 per cent last year to $5.64bn (£3.76bn), the sector fared better than many other industries and has overtaken biotech and IT as the largest venture capital investment categories. Similarly, a survey of more than 200 clean tech investors undertaken at the start of the year by investment bank Jeffries revealed confidence that investment levels will rise, while a separate report from analyst New Energy Finance predicted global clean tech investment in 2010 would reach $160bn, compared with $125bn in 2009.