It’s been a good week for green business political dialogue in Europe. Yesterday (May 3) in Brussels, sustainable business leaders from EU Corporate Sustainability Group met with Commission President Barroso, Commissioner Hedegaard and Commissioner Potočnik to ask for a redoubling of green growth efforts. Also on Wednesday, Chancellor Angela Merkel met energy industry executives to [...]
Clean energy markets are already substantial in scope and growing fast. Between 2004 and 2010, global clean energy investment exhibited a compound annual growth rate of 32%, reaching €185 billion in 2010. By the end of 2009 the renewable energy sector secured more than 10% of Europe’s final energy consumption. In terms of new capacity, renewable [...]
The shift to a low-carbon economy requires an increase in investments: the European Commission estimates that over the next 40 years, the investment required to reach the 80-95% 2050 emission reductions target amounts to €270 billion annually. This is equivalent to a 1.5% increase above current investment levels of 19% of EU GDP (essentially returning [...]