What is EGS?
Environmental Goods & Services (EGS) is the name of an economic sector whose business it is to reduce the ecological footprint of the world economy.
It includes companies in:
It includes companies in:
- Clean energy (renewable energy, energy efficiency and zero-emissions vehicles)
- Waste water treatment
- Recycling
- Pollution control
- Carbon
- Clean energy finance and various others
World-wide, the EGS sector is growing rapidly, particularly as the regulatory and market environment changes in favour of clean energy.
In 2004, the UK Treasury estimated that the world Environmental Goods and Services (EGS) was worth $548bn. A report for Nedlac in 2006 showed that the EGS sector in South Africa in 2004, was worth between R14.5 billion and R23.2 billion (1-1.6% of GDP).At the time, the UK Treasury expected EGS to grow to $688 billion by 2010, but in 2009 the (UK Department of Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform reported that globally the low-carbon portion of EGS alone, was already worth £3 046bn in 2008.
“Cleantech” is the fastest-growing among venture capital sectors with 1 000% growth from 2000 to 2007. It is now 3rd largest venture capital investment behind ICT and biotechnology.
The Desertec project is a German initiative to build solar power plants in North Africa supplying clean energy through long-distance (High Voltage Direct Current) transmission lines, to Europe. At an estimated €400bn, this is the world’s largest ever project of this nature.
Cleaning up the world energy system will cost more than $40 trillion over the next 25 years – an unparalleled business opportunity.