Investment in biomass and energy from waste worldwide fell 27 per cent in 2012 to $9.7 billion compared to the previous year.
According to a report by Bloomberg New Energy Finance, this compares to a decline in renewable energy investment by 11 per cent overall last year.
In total, most investment came from asset finance of facilities such as biofuel plants, wind farms and solar plants with a total of $148.6 billion worldwide, down from $180 million in 2011.
In the UK, total investment in renewable energy was $8.3 billion in 2012, down 17 per cent on the year before. This compares to a 27 per cent fall in Germany to $22.8 billion and a 35 per cent decline in France to $4.3 billion.
Bloomberg New Energy Finance chief executive Michael Liebreich said: “We warned at the start of last year that investment in 2012 was likely to fall below 2011 levels, but rumours of the death of clean energy investment have been greatly exaggerated. Indeed, the most striking aspect of these figures is that the decline was not bigger – given the fierce headwinds the clean energy sector faced in 2012 as a result of policy uncertainty, the ongoing European fiscal crisis, and continuing sharp falls in technology costs.”
