$10 Trillion Invested In Clean Tech Since Paris Agreements

---

Support CleanTechnica's work through a Substack subscription or on Stripe.

---

Often it seems the world is bound and determined to burn every molecule of coal, oil, and methane that can be extracted from beneath the surface of the Earth and nothing will slow the assault of fossil fuels on the environment. However, Bloomberg this week has a report that reveals that $10 trillion has been invested in clean tech endeavors since the Paris climate agreements were signed in a decade ago.

Bloomberg contributors Laura Millan and Rachael Dottle wrote on November 4 that “the flow of investment into green technologies continues to advance and is beginning to trigger changes to less polluting processes in sectors from energy to road transportation and agriculture.”

In an interview, Christiana Figueres, the Costa Rican diplomat who was a principal architect of the Paris climate accords said, “No one can solve climate change, it is too late for that. But we can avoid the worst. Technology is working. It is increasing its market deployment and its efficiency exponentially.”

Annual energy transition investment surpassed $2 trillion for the first time in 2024, which was more than double the rate in 2020 according to research by BloombergNEF. Investments in clean tech between 2014 and last year amounted to $10.3 trillion, the latest data shows. Spending on renewable energy alone hit a record in the first half of this year — up 10% compared to the same period in 2024.

Solar and wind farms are finally beginning to catch up with accelerating demand for electricity, meaning carbon dioxide emissions from the energy sector — the most significant man-made contributor to global warming — may have peaked last year and already be in decline, BNEF analysis suggests. If forecasts for demand for fossil fuels prove to be stronger than anticipated, however, that could delay a reduction in emissions from the power sector.

Road transport emissions are on track to peak by 2029, Bloomberg suggests. By then, sales of electrified vehicles worldwide should reach 25%. China, which is the source of almost a third of all global emissions may actually record lower emissions this year after slowing emissions growth to just 1% in 2024.

The Latest UNEP Report

The latest UN Environmental Programme report finds that global warming projections for this century, based on full implementation of Nationally Determined Contributions, are now 2.3-2.5°C, while those based on current policies are 2.8°C. This compares to 2.6-2.8°C and 3.1°C in last year’s report. The reduction is attributable to increased implementation of clean energy systems. The UN report now forecasts total global emissions to decline by 10% from 2019 levels by 2035.

That’s good but not good enough. “We are running late against the climate crisis. This delay of course is worrying,” said Laurence Tubiana recently. Like Christiana Figueres, she played a vital role in creating the Paris climate accords as France’s climate change ambassador in 2015. “The green transition, the development of technologies, the progressive lowering of the cost is really, really very impressive,” she said.

The UN report goes on to say that reductions to annual emissions of 35% are needed by 2035 to limit global warming to 2º C and 55% to limit them to 1.5º C. Given the size of the cuts needed, the short time available to deliver them, and a challenging political climate, average temperatures are expected to exceed 1.5° C within the next decade.

That overshoot could be limited by faster and bigger reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, but doing so will be extremely challenging, the report warns. Challenging, in this case, means damned near impossible when one of the biggest emitters is sabotaging renewable energy development at every opportunity.

“Every fraction of a degree avoided means lower losses for people and ecosystems, lower costs, and less reliance on uncertain carbon dioxide removal techniques to return to 1.5°C by 2100,” the report says.

“Current projections based on the lackluster or nonexistent emissions strategies proposed by countries ahead of COP 30 make the prospect of warming the world by less than 2º C a stretch. It’s enough to raise deep doubts about what the last decade of climate diplomacy has wrought,” Bloomberg says. “We are faced with a conflict of models,” Tubiana said. “One side wants to go back to fossil fuels. When you look at the evolution of the technology, of the real economy, the transition is underway.”

António Guterres Remarks Regarding COP 30

In a televised speech marking the report’s release, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said that if existing national climate action plans are fully implemented by 2035, global warming would reach 2.3 to 2.5 degrees Celsius by the end of the century. “That is progress, but nowhere near enough,” Guterres said. “Current commitments still point to climate breakdown … and the path to a liveable future gets steeper by the day.”

According to Inside Climate News, warming of more than 2º C (3.6º F) would make many low-lying islands uninhabitable and swamp millions of square miles of coastal regions around the world. Those estimates are based on assessments by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Heat waves in equatorial countries would be unsurvivable without shelter; droughts, wildfires and floods would displace millions of people.

“Nations have had three chances to deliver promises made under the Paris Agreement, and each time they have landed off target,” said UNEP executive director Inger Anderson. “Each time they’ve left the world on course for an intensification of the climate crisis. While national climate plans have delivered some progress, it is nowhere near fast enough.”

The new UNEP report concludes that the decision by the US to withdraw (again) from the Paris Agreement in January 2026, and its adoption of policies that damage the climate by increasing fossil fuel emissions and eliminating efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions, will raise global temperatures by about 0.1º C. “Every tenth of a degree is like pouring more fuel on the fire, and every additional metric ton of CO2 in the atmosphere melts a car-size chunk of Arctic sea ice, Inside Climate News claims.

Andersen said after the formal comment period ended, the United States government asked UNEP to remove data about the US from the report. That cowardly and despicable request illustrates how far it is willing to go to prop up fossil fuel companies,

“That’s obviously impossible,” Andersen said, “because it’s one planet, one atmosphere, and one impact, and so we will obviously include that data, irrespective of whether they are party or not.” But the report does include a footnote indicating “that the U.S. does not support the emissions gap report,” she said, adding that all UNEP reports are based on science and peer reviewed.

The High Cost Of Doing Nothing

Not acting on climate change has considerable economic costs, said Jennifer Morgan, former German state secretary for climate and special envoy for international climate action. Not taking appropriate action has led to heatwaves, droughts, downpours, and other climate extremes. Those events have resulted in damages of €44.5 billion ($51.1 billion) annually to crops, property, and infrastructure.

That is double the annual cost in the prior decade, according to the European Environment Agency. “That’s beginning to resonate with leaders,” Morgan said. “The institutional buy-in of the Paris agreement continues and moves forward despite two pull-outs by the US.”

Whether the new UNEP report will makes a difference at COP 30 depends on whether national leaders are willing to make science-based decisions in the public interest, Andersen said. She called on governments to enact measures to boost investments in renewables and to provide the technologies needed to all countries that require them.

Leaders Should Lead

“Leaders should lead … and leading on climate means understanding the science and understanding that science speaks to policy,” she said. “Being a leader means understanding that it falls upon them to pick up this work and to really explain it to communities.”

“The Paris Agreement is relevant because it’s working. It’s not working fast enough, and it’s not working far enough for too many, but it’s clearly working,” Rachel Kyte, the UK climate envoy, said in an interview at the Bloomberg Green at COP30 conference in São Paulo on Tuesday. “Multi-lateralism is the best and only way we have to work together on a global problem,’ she said.

“It is the No. 1 convening moment of the year, in which stakeholders come together to show each other what they’re doing, to learn from each other, to take a temperature gauge of who has the best technology, who has the best financial structure that allows for better decarbonization,” said Figueres, who will be the executive secretary at the UNFCCC until 2016.

The takeaway here is that if the people will lead, their leaders will follow!