BloombergNEF: Global green energy investment exceeds $2 trillion
7 February 2025
Global investment in the low-carbon energy sector grew 11% to hit a record $2.1 trillion in 2024, setting a new record, according to Energy Transition Investment Trends 2025, an annual report released last week by BloombergNEF (BNEF).
BNEF also estimates that global energy transition investment would need to average $5.6 trillion each year from 2025 to 2030, in order to get on track for global ‘net zero’ goals by 2050.
Although investment has accelerated rapidly this decade—more than doubling since 2020—growth slowed last year, dropping to just 11% from 24-29% in each of three years prior.
Most of the investments—some 93% of the total—are in ‘mature’ sectors, which collectively grew by 14.7% in 2024. The largest investment drivers were electrified transport at $757 billion, renewable energy at $728 billion, and power grids at $390 billion. All three grew to new record levels, with electrified transport up 20%, power grids up 15%, and renewable energy up 8%. Energy storage also accelerated strongly with 36% growth in 2024 pushing the committed total to $53.9 billion.
Renewable energy includes wind, solar, biofuels, biomass and waste, marine, geothermal, and small hydro
(Source: BNEF)
The BNEF report also shows that investment in ‘emerging’ sectors of the clean energy economy declined by 23% last year. These ‘emerging’ technologies include clean industry, electrified heat, clean shipping, hydrogen, carbon capture and storage (CCS), and nuclear power. These sectors attracted just $154 billion in 2024, or 7% of the total, and after several years of growth saw a 23% decline in investment. However, clean shipping, which tracks purchases of zero-emission-capable vessels, though relatively tiny and hardly visible in the chart, quadrupled to $452 million.
(Source: BNEF)
The largest market for investment was mainland China, which alone accounted for $818 billion of investment, up 20% from 2023. China’s investment growth was equivalent to two-thirds of the total global increase in the year, with all sectors reviewed in the report showing solid growth.
The EU, USA, and UK, which drove growth in 2023, saw different results in 2024. Investment was stagnant in the USA, reaching $338 billion, and down in both the EU and UK, reaching $381 billion and $65.3 billion, respectively. China’s total investment last year was greater than the combined investment of the US, EU and UK. Of the large markets included in the report, India and Canada also added to overall global growth, increasing their investments by 13% and 19%, respectively.
Source: BloombergNEF