Towards a green economy: renewable energy - investing in energy and resource efficiency

This chapter makes the case for increasing investment in greening the energy sector with a focus on renewable energy supply. The current highly carbon-intensive energy system depends on declining stocks of fossil fuels, leaves 2.7 billion people without access to modern energy, and is, thus, not sustainable in economic, social, and environmental terms. Furthermore, the current state of the energy sector leaves many countries exposed to large swings in oil import prices and also costs billions in public subsidies.