Investing at least $1 trillion per year until 2020 could lead from the fossil-fueled industrial era to a technologically advanced solar age based on ethical principles of equity, efficiency, biomimicry and earth systems science, according to the mid-year update to the Green Transition Inflection Point: Green Transition Scoreboard 2013 Report.
Green Investments to Reach $10 Trillion by 2020
Investing at least $1 trillion per year until 2020 could lead from the fossil-fueled industrial era to a technologically advanced solar age based on ethical principles of equity, efficiency, biomimicry and earth systems science, according to the mid-year update to the Green Transition Inflection Point: Green Transition Scoreboard 2013 Report.
As of July 2013, the Green Transition Scoreboard (GTS), which tracks private sustainability investments since 2007, jumped to $5.2 trillion from $4.1 trillion reported in February. To date, investments are well on the way to the $10 trillion by 2020 mark.
The mid-year update provides a summary of the GTS and delves into the trends growing the Renewable Energy and Green Construction sectors, specifically. The GTS chronicles how investors and asset managers are updating strategic asset allocation models both as opportunities and as risk mitigation. GTS endorsers include Prof. Dan Kammen, UC Berkeley; Don Tapscott, author, Wikinomics; Ashok Khosla, Development Alternatives, India; and many more.
The report says that as much as $2.3 trillion has been privately invested globally in renewable energy since 2007, and is benefitting from reduced cost and greater efficiencies as well as from changing attitudes toward fossil fuels and diminished returns on investments. Green Construction is increasing as the demolition subsector takes down outdated infrastructure. The efficiency sector is adding material and water efficiencies to the energy efficiencies boosting this sector.
“A large portion of this mid-year jump is due to better reporting, by market research organizations and companies themselves, of green activities and initiatives,” said Timothy Jack Nash, Director of Sustainability Research for Ethical Markets Media, which created the GTS.
“Beyond this inflection point, clean technology investment, integral to the green economy, is inevitably growing toward the Solar Age, based on Earth Systems Science, Hazel Henderson has been forecasting,” says Rosalinda Sanquiche, executive director of Ethical Markets and co-author and researcher of the GTS.
According to a recent report by the International Energy Agency, investors achieved notable victories during this year’s shareholder proxy season, with a near-record 110 shareholder resolutions filed with 94 U.S. companies on hydraulic fracturing, flaring, fossil fuel reserve risks and other climate- and sustainability-related risks and opportunities.
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Mike Hower
Founder & Principal Consultant, Hower Impact
Mike Hower is the founder of Hower Impact — a boutique consultancy delivering best-in-class strategic communication advisory and support for corporate sustainability, ESG and climate tech.
Published Sep 4, 2013 1am EDT / 10pm PDT / 6am BST / 7am CEST