This annual report is considered by many to be the most authoritative appraisal of clean energy investment trends. The 2009 edition is being released during one of the worst financial and economic crises for a generation. This year's Global Trends survey was never likely to show the kind of extraordinary growth in renewables that has underlined previous years. Nevertheless, investment in the sustainable energy market has in some ways defied the global recession growing by around five per cent.

This report presents the financial perspective, or ‘dollar view’, of the current state of play in sustainable energy development. The analysis in this report consists of actual data on the different types of capital fl ows and their movement over time, combined with analysis of regional and sectoral trends. This information is intended to be a strategic tool for understanding the status of the clean energy sector’s development and for weighing future public and private commitments to the sector.

This book addresses the problem of how to make a large-scale socio-technical transition to renewable energy, so as to realize an environmentally sustainable economy in the long run. Transition thinking has in a short time managed to occupy a central position in the policy debate on sustainable development. The transition approach offers an innovative view on the role and content of public policy, compared with traditional views from economic, administrative and political sciences.

The United Nations Environment Programme's flagship magazine for environmentally sustainable development.

Published in Association with the United Nations Environment Programme. The need to reform energy subsidies was one of the pressing issues highlighted at the World Summit on Sustainable Development. Many types of subsidy, especially those that encourage the production and use of fossil fuel, and other non-renewable forms of energy, are harmful to the environment. They can also have high financial and economic costs, and often only bring few benefits to the people for whom they are intended.