What do developing countries know about renewables anyway?

The global balance of renewable energy spending has tipped.

In 2015, for the first time ever, developing countries invested more in green energy than those in the developed world.

That shift – in the year of the Paris Climate Change Agreement – is huge.

In 2015, the developing world's investments in renewables rose 19%. Developed nations’ fell 8%.

Globally, 118GW of wind and solar PV capacity was added in 2015 – a figure which has been described as 'unprecedented'.

Where renewables were once seen as a luxury, they are now becoming the best-value option.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, in the foreword of a report by the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management which spelled out these stats, writes:

"In 2015, renewable energy set new records for investment and new capacity added. Investments reached nearly $286 billion, more than six times more than in 2004, and, for the first time, more than half of all added power generation capacity came from renewables.

"We have entered a new era of clean energy growth that can fuel a future of opportunity and greater prosperity for every person on the planet."

Renewables – as Scottish Renewables has said – are now part of the mainstream.

Yet if we're to have any chance of meeting the Paris Agreement's goal and limiting global warming to less than 2C, much more must follow.

If the "low-carbon transformation of the global economy" is to succeed, Mr Ban says, world governments must focus on creating a level playing field for clean energy investment.

How?

Through:

• Carbon pricing
• Strengthening stable and predictable regulatory and investment environments

The removal of fossil fuel subsidies

A study by the Overseas Development Institute and Oil Change International in December found the UK is alone among G7 nations in dramatically increasing its fossil fuel subsidies, despite an earlier pledge to phase them out.

The report found that as a whole, G20 nations are responsible for £297bn a year in subsidies for fossil fuel production. That's money which could be spent increasing deployment (and therefore reducing the cost) of the renewable energy we need to meet our climate goals.

That aside, to return to the start.

The most heartening part of the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management study was this:

More and more countries, both developing and developed, 'get it'.
China's deployment of renewables is a perfect case in point.

The country, which has now agreed (with the US) to sign the Paris Climate Agreement, invested $102bn in renewables in 2015. That's more than Europe, Brazil and the US combined.

India invested $10.2bn, up 22% on 2014. South Africa's investment of $4.5bn was up 337% on a year earlier.

Morocco – which spent zero in 2014 – invested $2bn, while the Netherlands invested $0.8bn and Taiwan, which has a GDP of 30% less, invested $0.6bn, up 144% on a year earlier.

These figures show that not only is renewables now part of the mainstream, but that countries outside the G20 can make a difference in the fight against climate change.
Which is a message worth heeding next time someone says Scotland’s renewable energy targets are meaningless on a global scale.

Blog by Jenny Hogan, Scottish Renewables Director of Policy