China slipped to second place, the authors reported, with investment only increasing by USD 0.5bn to USD 45.5bn. Globally, overall financial backing in clean energy technologies hit a record USD 263bn, up 6.5% from 2010 levels. The report, Who is Winning the Clean Energy Race, showed that G20 nations accounted for 95% of the investment in the sector, which does not include nuclear power.

Over the course of the year, an additional 83.5 gigawatts (GW) was added to the world's clean energy generation capacity, including almost 30GW of solar and 43GW of wind.