However, despite the world economic downturn, 2009 total investments in clean energy declined by only 6.6 % from the year before, reaching 162 USD billions globally (Pew 2010). Moreover, the trend set in 2008, when the clean energy sector investment outperformed investment in fossil-fuel technologies for the first time, persisted through 2009. In comparison, according to the World Energy Outlook 2009 (IEA 2009a), the global oil and gas industry had investment declines of 19 percent in 2009. Venture capital and private equity financing have been contributing least (7% in the period 2004-2009) to investment in renewable energy, followed by the public equity markets (14%).