This growth puts it fractionally ahead of global GDP growth of 3.9 percent and up from the 1-percent decline recorded in the worldwide global environmental market in 2009, according to EBJ's Global Environmental Markets 2012. EBJ forecasts the same global growth rate for the industry in 2012.
The United States, Western Europe and Japan remain by a substantial margin the three largest environmental markets in EBJ's 11-region revenues analysis.
In terms of the 14 global environmental business segments tracked by EBJ, the largest is solid waste management at $140.9bn, followed by water utilities and water treatment works. However, clean energy systems and power ranks as the fourth largest segment in 2011, demonstrating robust 11 percent growth - significantly higher than the traditional infrastructure segments. Only resource recovery grew faster, up 13 percent in 2011.
