LONDON (Reuters) - Shares in companies specializing in curbing greenhouse gas emissions, including energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies, have tumbled faster than wider markets this year, indices showed.
"It would be easy to blame the credit crunch, which certainly has made it more difficult for project developers in wind and solar to raise debt finance," said Michael Liebreich, chairman and CEO of research firm New Energy Finance on Friday.
Another contributory factor was a correction in high valuations for some renewable energy companies, said Liebreich.
Prices of shares in clean energy and other "cleantech" companies addressing water supply, waste and efficiency issues had surged in the past 18 months on the back of heightened concerns over the threat of climate change.
But that threat remains, as does the related threat of growing global energy insecurity as a result of soaring oil and commodity prices and energy bills -- all of which analysts say will underpin future strength in the cleantech sector.
Supporting the growth of new technologies, venture capital investment in start-up and rapidly growing cleantech companies rose in the last three months, the Cleantech Group said this week.
The third quarter brought in $2.6 billion across 158 companies in North America, Europe, India and China, bringing the year-to-date investment to $6.6 billion, surpassing investment in the sector for all of 2007, they said.
New Energy Finance tracks companies worldwide focusing on the generation and use of cleaner energy and efficiency.
Its WilderHill New Energy Global Innovation Index, or NEX, fell 30.3 percent during the last quarter between 30 June and 30 September 2008, and is down 39 percent this year.
(Reporting by Gerard Wynn, Editing by Hans Peters)
