A new report claims to analyze and rank the economic and energy performance of the world's 50 largest greenhouse gas (GHG) emitting nations for the first time. The United States ranks among the world's top countries in clean tech investments, patents, renewable energy generation, and electric vehicle (EV) adoption -- while at the same time being among the worst for energy consumption and emissions.
Over the last 20 years, however, the U.S. has become more energy productive, using less energy per dollar of gross domestic product (GDP) generated, according to Next 10's Green Innovation Index.
The report finds that the United States is first in terms of clean tech innovation, with the most private investment and the most patents worldwide. U.S. clean tech investment rose 74 percent from 2013-2014. The European Union (EU) follows the U.S. in clean tech patents (11,330 v. 18,937 in 2014), and clean tech venture capital ($1.028 billion v. $8.208 billion in 2014).
The United States is also ranked first in total renewable electricity generation of any single country -- behind EU combined -- and first in EV adoption with more than one third of global sales.
"This year's Green Innovation Index, International Edition tracks a clear shift to clean energy around the world. Although fossil fuels still represent a significant portion of our overall energy use, many analysts believe we have reached an important tipping point," said Doug Henton, chairman and CEO of Silicon Valley-based research and consulting firm Collaborative Economics, who developed the Green Innovation Index for Next 10. "Globally, we are now adding more capacity for renewable power annually than fossil fuels."
With 4.5 percent of the world's population, the U.S. follows only China (19.4 percent of world's population) in total GHG emissions from energy consumption, the report says. The U.S. (with much help from California) cut GHG emissions per capita by 17 percent while GDP per capita grew 37 percent, from 1990 to 2012, whereas China increased emissions by 222 percent and GDP per capita grew 604 percent.
While the EU ranks third in total GHG emissions, it decreased per capita carbon emissions by 17 percent while growing GDP per person by 36 percent.
"Some of the world's largest economies are now decoupling economic growth and energy use, actually growing their GDPs while shrinking their carbon footprints," said F. Noel Perry, founder of Next 10. "Last year marked the first time we've been able to say conclusively that a drop in global carbon emissions was caused by something other than an economic downtown."
This is consistent with the International Energy Agency's recent announcement that, in 2014, the global economy grew while carbon emissions did not, suggesting that the process of decoupling economic growth from GHG emissions is already underway.