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WENLING, CHINA – MAY 30: Aerial view of China’s first solar-tidal photovoltaic power plant on May 30, 2022 in Wenling, Zhejiang Province of China. The hybrid energy power station utilizing solar and tidal power to generate electricity was put into operation on Monday in Wenling. (Photo by Xu Weijie/VCG via Getty Images)
Big solar

Big solar

WENLING, CHINA – MAY 30: Aerial view of China’s first solar-tidal photovoltaic power plant on May 30, 2022 in Wenling, Zhejiang Province of China. The hybrid energy power station utilizing solar and tidal power to generate electricity was put into operation on Monday in Wenling. (Photo by Xu Weijie/VCG via Getty Images)

Clean energy investment has overtaken fossil fuels

Ten years ago roughly five times as much was spent on oil production globally as on new solar power capacity. This year solar investment is set to exceed investment in oil production for the first time in a landmark for clean energy that the head of the International Energy Agency says could keep alive the goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees. All told, $1.7 trillion will be spent this year on clean energy production, the IEA’s Fatih Birol told the FT, compared with $1.1 trillion on fossil fuels. Energy-related carbon emissions are still going up, but Birol calls the hockey-stick growth of Big Solar a “dramatic, striking shift”. Note: most of it is happening in China. The IEA’s annual World Energy Investment report was published yesterday.

Photograph Xu Weijie/VCG via Getty Images