Climate Spending Surges 18% in Year Before Paris Deal Planned

Global spending on projects to cut greenhouse gases and reduce vulnerability to climate change surged 18 percent last year as governments and investors stepped up green investments, the Climate Policy Initiative said.

Total expenditure rose to $391 billion in 2014 from $331 billion a year earlier, with almost three quarters of the cash raised and spent in the same country, the CPI said Monday in a report. About $292 billion of the cash went on solar parks, wind farms and other renewable energy projects, whose falling costs mean “investments are achieving more impact than ever before,” the San Francisco-based analysis group said.