Reports you shouldn’t miss

The following reports are must reads.

• The sister publications, Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investment 2013, the sixth edition of the Frankfurt School-UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Centre/Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) report, and the REN21 Renewables 2013 Global Status Report, a reference report on renewable energy market, industry and policy developments, were launched.

 The reports indicate that, for only the second time since 2006, global investments in renewable energy in 2012 failed to top the previous year, falling 12% mainly due to lower solar prices and weakened US and EU markets. They also find that 2012 was the second highest year ever for renewable energy investments, which total $1.3 trillion since 2006. The reports identify on-going renewable energy policy instability in important developed-economy markets as the main issue holding back investment last year.

 The Global Trends report is available here. The REN21 report is available on its website.

•  The IEA has launched Redrawing the Energy-Climate Map, a World Energy Outlook Special Report.  It highlights the need for intensive action before 2020. IEA’s executive director, Maria van der Hoeven, said “This report shows that the path we are currently on is more likely to result in a temperature increase of between 3.6 °C and 5.3 °C but also finds that much more can be done to tackle energy-sector emissions without jeopardising economic growth, an important concern for many governments.”  More information is available on the IEA website.

• The European Environment Agency recently published Reducing air pollution from electricity-generating large combustion plants in the European Union.  This report presents an assessment of the hypothetical emission reduction potential of NOx, SO2 and dust from more than 1,500 of Europe’s large combustion plants that operated in 2009. Emissions of these air pollutants could be significantly lower if all plants were to meet the emission limit values as set out in European Union legislation.  The report can be downloaded on the EEA website.