Investment in renewables

28 October 2016
What was claimed

The UK has dropped to 14th in a world ranking for investment in renewable energy.

Our verdict

The UK has fallen to 14th in a ranking for most attractive countries to invest in renewables. A different ranking put it at 4th in the world for actual spending in 2015.

 “It’s all well and good, the government asking Nissan to stay in the UK and investing in Airbus, but I read a report the other day that said the UK has dropped to 14th in a world table for investment in renewable energy”.

BBC Question Time audience member, 27 October 2016

This is correct based on the ‘Renewable energy country attractiveness index’ published by the consultancy firm EY.

It’s not a ranking of how much countries invest in renewables, though. It’s about which countries are viewed as most investment-friendly for renewable energy companies.

In the October 2016 edition, the UK is 14th of 40, behind Morocco and Japan. EY commented that “uncertainty caused by Brexit, the closure of the Department of Energy & Climate Change and the approval of Hinkley Point C all dealt a sizeable blow to the UK renewables sector. Some respite came when the Government approved 1.8GW Hornsea 2, which will be the world’s largest offshore wind farm if completed as planned”.

The UK was at fourth in the index as recently as November 2013.

As so often, there are different ways of measuring these things.

The UK was fourth in the world for new investment in renewable energy (excluding “large hydro”) in 2015, according to another report commissioned by a UN agency.

It said that China put over $100 billion into renewable that year, followed by the USA and Japan. The UK spent $22 billion, up 25% on the previous year.

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