Global investment in clean energy technologies is lower than it needs to be to reach net zero emissions by 2050 despite the multi-trillion-dollar opportunity it presents.

In its latest World Energy Outlook report, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said global investment in clean energy technology will need to rise to US$4 trillion annually by 2030 in order to meet current targets of net zero by 2050.

That’s more than three times the current level of investment, which even the IEA acknowledges will be a “challenging” goal to meet. It will also breathe fresh life into certain segments of the green energy market.

“The investment required to secure clean energy transitions offers an unprecedented level of market opportunities to equipment manufacturers, service providers, developers and engineering, procurement and construction companies along the entire clean energy supply chain,” the IEA said.

“In the [net zero economy], the combined size of the market for wind turbines, solar panels, lithium-ion batteries, electrolysers and fuel cells represents a cumulative market opportunity to 2050 worth US$27 trillion.”

Under the net zero by 2050 scenario, these five technologies alone will be larger than the current oil industry “and its associated revenues”, with the annual market opportunity for each growing tenfold to US$1.2 trillion.

That would be 3.5 times larger than forecasts for the same markets under the current stated policies scenarios, the IEA added.

The release of this report comes ahead of the UN COP26 Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, Scotland, which runs from October 31 to November 12.

The conference will be an opportunity for global leaders to develop strategies to achieve net zero by 2050 and finance the clean energy transition.

Join Reach Markets’ MD Patrick Nelson this Friday, 22nd October at 11am (AEDT) for a special briefing where he will present his views on the race towards clean energy and present a global investment opportunity that can benefit from its driving factors. This session is free to join and there will also be a Q&A portion. To book yourself in, click here.

Sources:

• International Energy Agency, World Energy Outlook 2021
• UN Climate Change Conference UK 2021, COP26
• UN Climate Change Conference UK 2021, COP26 Explained