China outstrips U.S. in clean energy investment

Our friends in China spent close to $34.6 billion on clean energy invests in 2009, compared with the $18.6 billion spent by the United States, according to new research published by the Pew Charitable Trusts.

Pew's new report, "Who's Winning the Clean Energy? Growth, Competition and Opportunity in the World's Largest Economies," found that clean energy investments have expanded by about 230 percent since 2005. In spite of the worldwide recession, total clean energy investments were about $162 billion in 2009. This year's total is projected at $200 billion.

Cumulatively, over that five year timeframe, the investments by the United States have trailed those of Turkey, Brazil, China, the United Kingdom and Italy). Total clean energy capacity is about 250 gigawatts, which represents about 6 percent of the global energy production capacity.