Climate and energy investment map of Germany

Combating climate change requires a redistribution of investments in climate-friendly solutions as well as a general increase in investment. As an important element in meeting this challenge in the European Union, the Regulation on Governance of the Energy Union obliges all EU member states to draw up national energy and climate plans (NECPs). These must contain analyzes of ongoing investment flows in the decarbonisation process of the member states.

The German Climate and Energy Investment Map (CEIM) created for 2016 contributes to this discussion. The map shows a snapshot of the climate and energy investment flows. Prepared through the evaluation of recent data, the map represents climate and energy investment flows starting from the sources of capital and the relevant intermediaries, through instruments used, and recipient sectors. To construct the map, we used a bottom-up approach tracking actual 2016 disbursements at a technology level, aggregating it on sector level and then on country level. The German CEIM 2016 is an update of the German climate finance landscape 2010 developed by Climate Policy Initiative and we made our best to compare the results as well as the methodological and data challenges of these assessments.

Considering the climate-specific investment flows that we were able to trace, we observe a 16% increase in the volume in 2016 (EUR 42.7 billion) relative to 2010 levels (EUR 36.7 billion). These volumes reflect the share of incremental investment in energy efficiency (EUR 8.5 billion), the total investment cost of renewable energy deployment (EUR 25.0 billion), and the total investment cost of non-energy-related mitigation and cross-cutting measures (EUR 9.3 billion). Relative to 2010 investment, the volume of flows to renewable energies decreased by 6%, while the volume of flows to energy efficiency increased by 18%. The private sector accounted for 83% of total investment; the remaining 17% originated in the public sector. Similar to 2010, both low-cost debt and grants offered by public actors played an important role in driving private investment in 2016. Sectors that attracted the largest share of investment were the buildings sector and the energy generation and transmission sector.