So as manufacturing jobs have moved out of America to countries where they can be done more cheaply, the mantra from government to government, Democratic or Republican, is that because America is the leader in high tech jobs, there will always be work here if you have the right skill set. And yes, this involves retraining, but for the most part, this is the vision of the future that politicians will try to sell you. But what happens when, for political reasons, the government is unwilling to invest in a new technology? The world doesn’t stand still, and other countries will step in and be able to steal a march on the USA.

So it is, then, that the US is starting to lag in terms of green technology. The focus of the stimulus package, at least in headline terms, seems to be more concerned with propping up an ailing auto industry rather than putting money into large scale renewable energy projects. This week, there have been a couple of stories that have thrown this into sharp relief.
First of all, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) put out a report entitled Global Trends in Sustainable Energy Investment 2009. Surprisingly, the report finds that worldwide, $155 billion was invested in low carbon energy generation projects in 2008. This accounts for around 40% of the total amount of money invested in new energy projects over the course of that year.

Here’s a quotation from Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and UNEP Executive Director:

Without doubt the economic crisis has taken its toll on investments in clean energy when set against the record-breaking growth of recent years. Investment in the United States fell by two per cent and in Europe growth was very much muted…. other developing economies such as Brazil, Chile, Peru and the Philippines have brought in, or are poised to introduce policies and laws fostering clean energy as part of a Green Economy.

So, that’s 2008. The second point of interest this week was China announcing aggressive new targets in low carbon energy sources. Speaking to the Guardian newspaper, Zhang Xiaoqiang, vice-chairman of China's national development and reform commission said:

We are now formulating a plan for development of renewable energy. We can be sure we will exceed the 15% target. We will at least reach 18%. Personally I think we could reach the target of having renewables provide 20% of total energy consumption.

The goal under the new plan is to have 100GW of power generated from wind sources by the year 2020.The new target for solar power is 9GW, representing a 75 fold increase on the amount currently generated from sunlight. From the $590 billion stimulus package, more than $30 billion will be spent directly on clear power, but this could easily increase with investment in other clean tech, such as low carbon transport and transmission efficiencies.

So, it looks as if China will be a significant driver of global investment in green technology. Where does that leave the US? It’s certainly not too late to do something, but the government needs to react and respond quickly to keep the economy competitive in the next decade.