China and Brazil Lead Major Countries With $34.6 Billion Invested in Clean Technology

By LISA FRIEDMAN of ClimateWire

Published: March 25, 2010

China, Brazil and other developing countries are pouring billions of dollars into efforts to reduce carbon emissions and build up renewable energy markets, a trend that some experts say has turned the traditional climate change debate on its head.

A growing body of studies detail the government subsidies, regulatory policies and private investments that have sent money flowing into the clean energy sectors of some of the leading developing countries. The most recent report out today from the Pew Environment Group, finds that China for the first time now leads the United States and all other major countries in green energy markets. Its private investments of $34.6 billion over the past five years are almost double America's.

Advocates of U.S. climate change legislation say the foreign buildup is a sign that America is falling behind in a global clean energy race. But many also feel it has blunted some of the sharpest demands from both rich and poor nations in the climate fight -- specifically developing countries' insistence that the West pay for any shift to low-carbon energy economies.

"The industrializing poor countries themselves have suddenly, in the space of two years, left that argument behind. It's been invalidated by their own behavior," said David Wheeler, a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development.

Brazil and India step up investment pace

China aims to spend 34 percent of its $586 billion stimulus package on green projects, as well as $100 billion to upgrade the rail and transmission grid systems that one report calls the "backbone of China's clean energy economy." Brazil has invested more than $11 billion into ethanol production and has created a $1 billion conservation fund to help meet its 36 percent emissions reduction pledge.