Asia Leads Cleantech Spending

May 31 - Red Herring - Global spending on new energy and environmental technologies is slated to grow 14 percent this year to more than $55 billion with Asia maintaining its leading role, a research group said Thursday.

A report by New York-based Lux Research also showed that Asian countries, particularly China, Japan, and South Korea, in 2006 slightly increased their lead over the U.S. and European nations when it came to cleantech R&D spending by governments and corporations.

“Unlike previous technology waves in information and biotech…the U.S. is not leading the world,” said Matthew Nordan, president of Lux Research, in a prepared statement. “The Asia/Pacific region takes first place in government funding, corporate R&D spending, and scientific publications while the U.S. only leads in deployment of venture capital and in patents issued.” Read More.