根据政府间气候变化专门委员会（IPCC）的研究报告，使用清洁能源取代化石燃料，增加清洁能源在能源总供给中的比重，可以有效减少地球的温室气体排放，进而减缓地球变暖。作为减缓地球气候变暖的重要途径之一，推动清洁能源发展的议题越来越多地出现在全球应对气候变化的相关议程中。2015年底的巴黎国际气候大会以及政府间气候变化专门委员会的第五次《气候变化评估报告》均提出了全球温室气体减排的最新计划。在国际社会的共同推动和努力下，20世纪70年代至今，清洁能源在全球一次能源供应中的比重有了一定程度的增加。在全球应对气候变化、加快化石能源替代的大背景下，2014年和2015年全球清洁能源的技术研发和产业投资均继续保持一定程度增加，但受国际油价大跌、全球经济复苏乏力、欧债危机等因素影响增速有所放缓。
According to research of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change（IPCC），increasing the use of clean energy could effectively reduce the greenhouse gas emission on the Earth，and thus slow down the global warming. Advancing the development of clean energy，as one of the most important measures of retarding the earth warming，more and more appears on the agenda of combating the climate change around the global. Paris Climate Conference in 2015 and the IPCC’s fifth Climate Change Report both put forward the new aims and arrangements for global greenhouse gas reduction. Through the efforts of international community，the ratio of clean energy in the global primary energy supply has increased to a certain extent since the 1970s. On the background of combating climate change and quickening fossil fuel replacement，global clean energy technology R&D and investments both maintain increased in 2014 and 2015，however，the growing rate of both decreased as the result of international oil price slump，week global economic recovery and the European debt crisis.
