Lachlan Markay of the Washington Free Beacon reports on those who hope to cash in from the Paris climate talks.
A group of millionaires and billionaires that includes major investors in green energy are using the international climate talks kicking off this week to push for more government subsidies for the types of companies in which they are investing.
The Breakthrough Energy Coalition on Monday unveiled policy proposals demanding that governments step up their “investment” in green energy companies. The coalition’s founding members include a host of financiers with significant green energy portfolios.
At the same time, the group said it will be leveraging government support in its own investment work, which will target early-stage green energy companies.
Green energy is not sufficiently appealing to private investors at present, the coalition says. Therefore government must step in and provide extensive capital for firms working on wind, solar, and other renewable energy technologies – the types of firms that Breakthrough will be backing.
The effort comes as world leaders gather for a United Nations conference on climate change, where the Obama administration is expected to push for greater government action to reduce U.S. and global carbon emissions.
“In the current business environment, the risk-reward balance for early-stage investing in potentially transformative energy systems is unlikely to meet the market tests of traditional angel or VC investors—not until the underlying economics of the energy sector shift further towards clean energy,” the Breakthrough Coalition’s website states.
“This collective failure can be addressed, in part, by a dramatically scaled-up public research pipeline, linked to a different kind of private investor with a long term commitment to new technologies who is willing to put truly patient flexible risk capital to work,” it adds.
