1,700 billion dollars of investments in 2023- Corriere.it

For the first time in 2023, global investments in solar energy will exceed spending on oil production. This was reported by the International Energy Agency (IEA), highlighting a surge in development of renewable sources to help reduce emissions and, in its annual report, it projects $1.7 trillion in spending for the full year to boost clean technologies.

The increase in investments over the years

Solar energy – especially photovoltaics – is the leading investment, to which around 382 billion could be allocated (it is assumed that 371 billion will be needed for oil production). By comparison, a trillion is estimated to be global spending on coal, gas and oil. The IEA report highlights how the attention and direction of spending has gradually shifted over the years towards renewable energy: in 2013, worldwide, $636 billion for oil production and $127 billion for solar energy. Between 2021 and 2023, on the other hand, the increase in annual investments in clean sources was 24%; over the same period, growth in spending on fossil fuels was 15%.

Changing energy scenario

This accelerated, according to the IEA, more than 90% due to advanced economies and China, with the serious risk of new dividing lines in global energy if clean energy transitions do not increase elsewhere. For a man like me who gets his hands dirty with data every single day, this is an impressive and dramatic change — explained Fatih Birol, executive director of the agency al Financial Times —. If these investments in clean energy continue to grow in line with what we have seen in recent years … we will soon begin to see a very different energy system emerge and we can keep alive the 1.5C target (the limit to keep the ‘increase in global average temperature compared to pre-industrial times, to be achieved by 2027, to avoid the most serious effects of global warming, ed).