Renewable energy investment in 2021 is expected to surpass oil and gas for the first time in history, according to a report recently published by the US-based investment bank and financial services company Goldman Sachs.

Next year, renewable energy will become the largest area of spending in the energy industry, accounting for about 25% of total energy capital expenditure worldwide, compared with just 15% in 2014, according to Goldman Sachs.

Green energy could attract USD 16 trillion in investment through 2030

Through 2030, renewable energy could attract as much as USD 16 trillion in investment, in what would be consistent with the world’s aim to keep global warming below 2°C, as envisaged in the Paris Agreement, Goldman Sachs said in a report titled “Carbonomics.”

Clean tech could create up to 20 million jobs by 2030

Clean tech has the potential to drive between USD 1 trillion and USD 2 trillion of green infrastructure investments a year and create 15-20 million jobs in the energy industry worldwide by 2030, mostly through public-private partnership, according to the report.

Clean technologies, according to the report, also have a major role to play in the upcoming economic recovery, following the global COVID-19 pandemic crisis.

Report warns of “two-speed decarbonization”

On the other hand, the report warns of an emerging “two-speed decarbonization,” where fiscal and monetary incentives would speed up investment in clean technologies, while the development of carbon markets and decarbonization technologies such as carbon capture and clean hydrogen may be slowed down.

This process may ultimately delay the technological breakthroughs necessary to flatten the decarbonization cost curve, Goldman Sachs warns.