Renewable Infrastructure Investment HandbookThe World Economic Forum is pleased to present the Renewable Infrastructure Investment Handbook, a guide for institutional investors interested in climate finance. This handbook is part of the World Economic Forum’s System Initiative on Shaping the Future of Long-Term Investing, Infrastructure and Development and supports the Forum’s decade-long effort to illustrate how investors with a long-term outlook can make meaningful change in economies and societies.
The adoption of the Paris Agreement on 12 December 2015 by 195 governments is a major turning point in the global fight against climate change. To date, 190 governments have committed to specific actions to reduce their national greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, covering over 95% of total global emissions. While these efforts alone will not suffice in keeping the world climate-safe, these bottom-up national pledges will provide a solid foundation from which ambition can be ratcheted up in the coming years.
At the same time, the Fourth Industrial Revolution has contributed to a dramatic reduction in technology costs, and new and attractive economics of the sector provide an opportunity for investors to find stable, inflation-protected yields while accelerating much-needed deployment of clean energy.
The World Economic Forum platform exists at the intersection of energy, climate and investment, which gives us the unique opportunity to bring all parties together towards a mutually beneficial goal. This handbook comes at a crucial time, when the renewables sector constitutes a compelling alternative to the lowyielding global environment, while the world strongly needs radical change to its energy matrix.