Financing sources and policies for renewable energies

• Published in: Transactions on ecology and the environment Vol. 150; pp. 847 - 857
• Main Authors: IVANOVA, A, GAMEZ, A, ANGELES, M
• Format: Conference Proceeding Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Southampton WIT Press 2011; W I T Press
• Subjects: Animal, plant and microbial ecology; Applied ecology; Applied sciences; Biological and medical sciences; Climate change; Commercialization; Energy; Energy economics; Energy policy; Energy security; Energy sources; Environment and sustainable development; Exact sciences and technology; Financing; Fossil fuels; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; General, economic and professional studies; Global climate; Greening; Markets; Poverty; Renewable energy; Risk management; Dynamical climatology; Climate change; Renewable energy; Financing; Trend analysis; Energy policy; Sustainable development; Implementation
• ISBN: 1845645448; 9781845645441
• ISSN: 1746-448X; 1743-3541
• DOI: 10.2495/SDP110701

Renewable energy (RE) has a significant potential to mitigate global climate change, address regional and local environmental concerns, reduce poverty and increase energy security. The challenge is to provide the right policy frameworks and financial tools that will enable RE to achieve its market potential and move from the margins of energy supply into the mainstream. Policy-makers thus have a mandate to take action and, since most of the capital for this greening will not come from public treasuries, most of this action will need to focus on creating enabling frameworks and finance mechanisms for technology R&D, commercialization and investment. Renewable energies, although subject to the same market forces as conventional energy sources, involve markedly different technologies and thus their financing requires new thinking, new risk management approaches and new forms of capital. After examining and analyzing the financing trends for renewable energies, we conclude that market signals alone – even when incorporating carbon pricing – have not been sufficient to trigger significant renewable energies growth. Therefore the importance of the well-designed policies is crucial. To be as effective as possible, these must be taking into account the state of the technology, available RE resources, and responding to local political, economic, social and cultural needs and conditions.