European investment in renewables heads toward zero
According to figures by Bloomberg New Energy Finance, investment in renewable energy in Europe has been in decline since it peaked in Q2 2011. As the EU has pledged to reduce its overall emissions by 40% below 1990 levels by 2030, large investment in renewables will be required to reach this target. However, in Q3 2015, investment in renewables declined to around the same level as Q4 2004, according to the figures.

In its submission in advance of the December climate conference in Paris, the EU committed to reduce its overall emissions at least 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030. Achieving this target, which the EU says is legally binding, will obviously require a very large investment in renewables. Yet, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, investment in “clean energy” in Europe has been declining steadily since the second quarter of 2011 and looks set to flatten out at a value effectively indistinguishable from zero in the not-too-distant future:

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As reported in Blowout Week 93, Angus Crone, senior analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance, blames the decline on a reduction in subsidies: The large drop (in Q3 2015) also follows on recent changes in government policy that have struck against green energy. Support policies have become less friendly to wind and solar investors in several countries, including Italy, Germany, Denmark and, most recently, the UK. To these unfriendly countries we can also add Spain, which reneged on billions of dollars of renewables subsidies in 2012, and France, which is now reportedly in the process of doing away with feed-in tariffs. Related: Romania Wants New Gas Supplies To Break Russian Gas Hold

So how are the governments of the EU28 going to meet their collective 40 percent-by-2030 reduction target without forking out yet more hundreds of billions in renewables subsidies, something none of them seem to have any inclination to do and which some of them are no longer able to afford anyway?

Beats me.

But suggestions welcome.

By Roger Andrews

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