several obstacles resulting from market and government failures including fossilfuel subsidies the lack of supportive policies as well as outstanding barriers to international trade and investment still hamper investment in renewable energy a key challenge for governments to catalyse investment flows in clean energy is to design and implement clear and predictable domestic policy frameworks investment policy nondiscrimination of foreign versus domestic investors intellectual property rights contract enforcement the quality of investment policies directly influences the decisions of all investors be they small or large domestic or foreign transparency property protection and nondiscrimination are investment policy principles that underpin efforts to create a sound investment environment for all