British PM Gordon Brown

Britain's prime minister has called for a "green revolution" in an effort to reduce his country's dependence on oil.

PrimeMinister Gordon Brown said Thursday his government will invest about$200 billion over the next 12 years in alternative energy sources,including the construction of 7,000 wind turbines on Britain's coast.

AEuropean Union mandate requires all member nations to produce 15percent of their energy from renewable resources by 2020. ButBritain's announcement highlights a growing focus by governments to endtheir reliance on fossil fuels.

France, which takes over the EUpresidency next month, has said forging ahead with a common, Europeanenergy policy is one of its top priorities in the wake of surging fuelprices.

In the United States, both Republican presidentialcandidate John McCain and Democratic presidential candidate BarackObama have endorsed the development of new, cleaner energy technologies.

And the Bloomberg news agency reports Chile's government announced today it wants to increase its use of biofuels.

Alternative Energy is also turning into big business.

Spain'sIberdrola Renovables, one of the world's biggest renewable energycompanies, said today it expects to increase its earnings from almost$630 million this year to about $1.6 billion in 2012

Iberdrolaalso said it plans to invest almost $30 billion over the next fiveyears to help build wind turbines across the globe. It said about halfof the money will be invested in the U.S.

Also today, Norway'sRenewable Energy Corporation (REC) announced it has won a $400 millioncontract to sell solar-energy cells to the Chinese company ChinaSunenergy. The Norwegian company announced Wednesday it had signed adeal with U.S.-based Suniva, Incorporated for $300 million.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP, and Reuters.