Clean energy investment rises in several countries amid global decline

NEW YORK -- Three G-20 nations saw an increase in clean-energy investments last year even as funding declined globally for the second consecutive year, according to The Pew Charitable Trusts.

Spending in Japan increased 80 percent to $28.6 billion, almost doubling the nation’s solar capacity, Canada spent 45 percent more at $6.5 billion and the U.K. spent 13 percent more at $12.4 billion, according to a Pew report released today.

That made Japan the third-biggest market for renewables, after China and the U.S. The U.K. came in fourth. “Despite a slow recovery from a global recession and damaging policy uncertainty, the clean energy industry has established itself as a $250 billion component of the world economy,” Phyllis Cuttino, director of Pew’s clean energy program, said in an e-mailed statement. Global investment last year declined 11 percent to $254 million, according to Pew. In 2012, spending fell 9 percent from a record $318 billion in 2011.

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