Dubai
Investment in the Middle East’s renewable energy sector is likely to be low over the medium term unless governments adopt more proactive clean-energy policies, the International Energy Agency (IEA) has warned.
In a media conference call on Thursday, the IEA said the Middle East renewable energy market is difficult for foreign investors to enter while current regulation and planning means there is limited potential for public-private partnerships.
Globally, clean-energy investments are to hit $1.61 trillion through 2020, despite an expected slowdown in the expansion of the sector, the IEA said on Thursday in its annual renewables report.
Annual investments in power capacity will average $230 billion a year over the medium term until the end of the decade, down from the $250 billion injected in 2013.
Renewables will account for over 26 per cent of total generation in 2020, up from 21.5 per cent last year, and is expected to account for 80 per cent of all new per cent of generation from 2013-2020, as per the report.
The 34 countries of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which includes the United States, Japan and Germany, will be responsible for the majority of clean energy investments over the next seven years. However, the IEA expects investments from non-OECD will be higher in 2020.
“We see investment rising over time in the Middle East. Over time we have it rising to a small level by 2020,” the IEA said during Thursday’s call.
The energy agency said geopolitical issues in Iraq, Syria and Libya wee unlikely to impact its outlook with much of the investments to come from Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates as well as Iran.
