Green investment globally reached the levels of funding put into producing fossil fuels for the first time in 2022 – the important milestone was enabled by dramatic growth in carbon capture investments
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As reported by the Washington Post, clean energy investments surged 31% last year, compared to 2021 and topped $1 trillion for the first time. However, to reach global decarbonisation goals, investment levels into sustainable technologies must triple for the rest of this decade.
One particular area that saw significant investment growth last year is carbon capture. Carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology attempts to remove carbon dioxide emitted while burning fossil fuels before it enters the atmosphere. The successful capture occurs in 50-68% of cases, while the companies involved aim to reach a 90% – 100% capture rate in the future.
Currently, an estimated 2 billion tons of CO2 are captured and locked up annually. The majority of these emissions are neutralized by conventional carbon dioxide removal (CDR) methods – carbon dioxide removal (CDR). Only a small amount, equivalent to 30 minutes of emissions a year, comes from environmental innovations like direct air capture (DAC), bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) and ocean alkalinization.
At the same time, carbon capture investments offer a lot of potential, once the technology overcomes the obstacles caused by a lack of awareness and related policies. Based on current planned and funded projects, these novel CDR solutions will remove up to 11.75 million tons a year by 2025, an equivalent of 2.5 hours of emissions.
Another growing sector of green investments is EVs. Together, these two segments constitute about 90% of all sustainable funding globally.
According to forecasts, sustainable (ESG) investing will remain a high priority for investors, asset managers, and banks in 2023, despite regulatory pressures and intense competition, growing at an accelerated speed.
