“India is fifth worldwide in total existing wind power capacity and is rapidly expanding many forms of rural renewables such as biogas and solar PV,” said United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in its report titled ‘Global Trends in Green Energy 2009’.

The report also lauded India’s effort for giving incentives to renewable energy through its missions under the National Action Plan on Climate Change.

The reports acknowledged efforts taken by the developing countries in adopting favourable policies regarding renewable energy. “Countries with policies encouraging renewable energy have roughly doubled from 55 in 2005 to more than 100 today - half of them in the developing world - and have played a critically important role in the sector’s rapid growth,” report added.

According to the report, “China surpassed the US in 2009 as the country with the greatest investment in clean energy.”

The report also said that for the first time, private sector companies invested large amounts in green energy - to tune to some $40.8 billion in 2009.    

Read the report