LONDON: Global investment in clean energy fell to $46-$47 billion in the third quarter of this year as project finance for renewables stalled due to policy uncertainty, overcapacity and cheap natural gas, two separate reports showed on Monday.
Third-quarter investment in renewable energy and smart energy technologies totalled $45.9 billion - 20 percent below the same period in 2012 and 14 percent below the second quarter of this year, research by Bloomberg New Energy Finance showed.
The Q3 fall makes it likely that new clean energy investment for the full year will be below last year's $281 billion, which was already 11 percent down on record levels of investment in 2011.
"$45.9 billion is still a substantial amount of money, greater than that invested in the whole of 2004, but the loss of momentum since 2011 is worrying," said Michael Liebreich, chief executive of Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
"The latest setback reflects policy uncertainty in Europe, the lure of cheap gas in the US, a levelling-off in wind and solar investment in China, and a general weakening of political will in major economies."
The United States, which led a rise in global clean energy investment in Q2, posted a 41 percent drop to $5.5 billion in Q3. Major economies Europe, China, India and Japan also saw their investment levels fall.
In a separate study, research company Clean Energy Pipeline saw global investment at $47 billion in Q3, which it said was the lowest level since the second quarter of 2009.
The firm attributed the fall mainly to a slump in project finance, particularly in the United States and Europe.
It said that only $7.1 billion was invested in European renewable energy projects in Q3 due to subsidy cuts in Germany, Spain, Italy, Romania, Poland and the Czech Republic over the past year.
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