ISTANBUL: Renewable energy initiatives by countries like India and China are outshining efforts of the developed world and breaking the trend of economic growth leading to higher emissions as fossil fuels will now fire only half of new power stations being built across the world, the International Energy Agency said."Renewable energy will represent the largest single source of electricity growth over the next five years, driven by falling costs and aggressive expansion in emerging economies," the energy watchdog of the developed world said in its annual market report, which was released at the G-20 Energy Ministers meeting in Istanbul.Total new renewable capacity to be added in the next five years will be 7 lakh megawatts, which is more than double Japan's current installed capacity. Along with the addition of new renewable energy plants, some of the old fossil-fuel capacity will also retire, making clean energy plants account for two-thirds of the new capacity being added, IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol told reporters.Birol however emphasised that government support for renewable projects remains critical as investors would be driven away if policies are not consistently supportive. Solar and wind energy plants also have issues such as generation from solar panels shutting down at night and windmills able to work only when the wind is strong enough, but regulatory risks were a bigger concern, he said. In developed economies, investment in renewable energy had slowed down due to such uncertainty."While variability of renewables is a challenge that energy systems can learn to adapt to, variability of policies poses a far greater risk," he said.He said unlike the past, when economic growth invariably led to higher emission of pollutants, renewable energy was offering a new paradigm. "We see promising signs that emission and economic growth are decoupling. Renewable energy has played a crucial role here," he said.IEA finds it encouraging that unlike the past, when the renewable energy was known as a source of energy only for the rich countries, it is the emerging economies that are taking the biggest steps in the next few years. China is estimated to account for 38% of future renewable capacity to the added worldwide, followed by India, 9% and Brazil 5%."This gives us a lot of hope. China has nearly 40% share in global development of renewabale energy. The main driver for China is cleaning up the cities, cutting local pollution," he said.He said the cost of renewable energy was also falling. China's push for solar energy has helped cut costs by two-thirds in the past five years, while onshore wind energy costs have also fallen by one-third, but prices of offshore wind energy were still going up. “The dogma that renewables are expensive, needs to be revisited.