CEO Club Briefing

A Shift from Fossil Fuels to Clean Energy

Excerpt from remarks to Boston College’s Chief Executives’ Club of Boston

October 24, 2013

TAKEAWAY: A SHIFT FROM FOSSIL FUELS TO CLEAN ENERGY

But based on the trends that we were seeing, 2012 was a really interesting year in a forecast sense. It was supposed to be the first year ever where the amount of investment that went into clean energy was greater globally than the amount of investment that went into fossil fuels. I have a lovely chart. It shows these two lines converging and about to cross—and it didn’t happen. They then diverged again. And the main reason for that divergence, partly the economic downturn in Europe, but moreover, the fact that renewable energy and cleaner energy had got significantly cheaper. Solar and wind both—the price reductions were enormous. We still, in 2012, actually saw more going into fossil fuel.