Investors in General Electric (GE), once one of the world’s most valuable companies, lost tens of billions of dollars after the Paris climate deal as it failed to adapt to the pace of the green energy transition, new analysis showed today. A report by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis said GE had lost a “simply staggering” RM802 billion in just three years to 2018 — amounting to almost three quarters of its market capitalisation. The research group said GE and its principal shareholders misjudged the falling price of renewables as the world transitions to cleaner energy and suffered from a collapse of the gas turbine and thermal power construction markets. As the price of renewable energy technologies such as wind and solar fell in recent years, GE has been left with billions in stranded fossil fuel-related assets as cheaper alternatives curbed industry demand for coal and gas. GE also failed to account for increasing energy efficiency, driven largely by renewables, which decoupled energy demand from global economic activity, according to the report.

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