LAHORE: The share of renewable energy in the global electricity generation continued its steady climb last year despite a 14 percent drop in investment to $214.4 billion, according to a report released on Tuesday.
According to the Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investment 2014 – produced by the Frankfurt School- UNEP Collaborating Centre for Climate and Sustainable Energy Finance, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and Bloomberg New Energy Finance — the investment drop of $35.1 billion was partly down to the falling cost of solar photovoltaic systems.
Other main cause was policy uncertainty in several countries, an issue that also depressed investment in fossil fuel generation in 2013, it said.
Globally, renewables, excluding large hydro accounted for 43.6 percent of the newly-installed generating capacity in 2013.
An expert said that although most nations, particularly developing countries, are aggressively taking steps to invest in the renewable energy, Pakistan failed to catch up this trend and even do not find place in the latest report.
Despite the fact that renewables, especially wind and solar energy are increasingly become viable, there are a few small-scale wind energy projects in Pakistan, while work on solar power is yet to commence on commercial level.
Small hydro has also yet to attract attention of the policymakers the expert said.
“A long-term shift in investment over the next few decades towards a cleaner energy portfolio is needed to avoid dangerous climate change, with the energy sector accounting for around two-thirds of the total greenhouse gas emissions,” Achim Steiner, UN Undersecretary General and Executive Director of UNEP. “The fact that the renewable energy is gaining a bigger share of overall generation globally is encouraging. To support this further, we must reevaluate investment priorities, shift incentives, build capacity and improve governance structures.”
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